United States

Citi became the first US bank to hit the market in 2017 amid a torrent of Yankee issuance, as it took home $5.25bn in two separate trades to power a record start to the year for dollar supply.

Timothy Massad, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has resigned, with J Christopher Giancarlo widely expected to take up the job, fuelling hopes of a more flexible, market friendly approach to regulation.

Auto makers led from the front as corporate US dollar issuance this week got off to its best ever start to the year.

European financials have found every reason to get into the dollar market early in 2017, leading to a fireworks display of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) senior deals this week. Though market conditions could not have been better to receive the banks, many will have wanted to squirrel away quantities of funding and capital for what could be another troublesome year in the capital markets.

CME Group is set to introduce six currency futures with monthly expiries.

Major derivatives exchanges have released figures showing growth over 2016 and in December, with big gains reported in some product lines.

John Maynard Keynes said we live in a world of irreducible uncertainty, while neoclassical economists assume that perfect information is available and people have rational expectations. The events of the past decade suggest that the former school of thought has more credence, though “freshwater” economists would no doubt disagree.

Timothy Massad, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has resigned, with Republican commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo widely expected to take up the job.

Barclays pulled in $1.5bn for a 30 year senior bond as part of a four-tranche offering worth $5bn, as five Yankee FIG borrowers powered through the first global window of 2017.

High volumes of issuance have boosted confidence in FIG primary market conditions at the start of 2017, with bankers expecting flows to remain high until banks start going into blackout later this month.

In 2016, blockchain went from a buzzword to a ‘must have’ in financial markets, as seemingly every bank and exchange invested in projects and proofs-of-concept. But with so many asset classes having been promised big gains, 2017 begins with a dose of realism about the limits of the technology — and the challenges it poses for regulators. Dan Alderson reports.

The upending of global financial markets in the second half of 2016, driven by shocks from the UK’s Brexit vote and US presidential election, has caused a breakdown in previously dominant cross-asset correlations and a sharp resizing of event risk in 2017. Dan Alderson reports on a wave of structured product innovation aimed at navigating this new and more volatile universe.