United States

As the $100bn-plus IPO of Saudi Aramco nears its launch, the UK’s Telegraph has most recently hinted at a three-way foreign listing, conducted across London, New York and Hong Kong. Columnist Philippe Espinasse looks at the practicalities and advantages (as well as disadvantages) for the oil behemoth of listing in Asia.

The US Department of Labor’s new conflict of interest regulations will change the way structured products are packaged and sold to retail retirement accounts, law firm Morrison & Foerster has warned. And although implementation is nearly a year away, the scope and complexity of likely programme changes require immediate attention from both manufacturers and distributors of structured products.

Money market fund reform regulation that comes into force in October this year will have serious consequences for banks’ funding. What are they doing about it?

The efforts of regulators to curb the potential for systemic shock caused when big banks fail took a step forward this week, as the US Federal Reserve Board proposed rules that would enforce stays on contractual termination rights between counterparties in different countries. But there are still strong incentives for buyside participants to oppose the plans.

Barclays and BNP Paribas became the first European banks to tap the Yankee market for subordinated paper for almost a month this week.

Oil giant Shell led a big surge in dollar bond market issuance this week as a procession of blue chip corporates emerged from earnings blackout to take advantage of a strong backdrop and print almost $20bn in fresh supply.

Senior policymakers at the ADB annual meetings appeared non-plussed about a Donald Trump US presidency and were reluctant to be drawn — although one expert doubted the Republican challenger knew what the ADB was.

April brought a continued positive shift in the difference between credit default swap spreads and cash spread equivalents, the CDS-bond basis, among US dollar denominated corporate bonds.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has launched a protocol to help market participants comply with regulations that enforce stays on contractual termination rights between counterparties in different countries.

Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust kicked off its second try at a Singapore listing on Tuesday with the launch of a bigger, bolder trade, this time expecting to raise up to $470m.

UniCredit has appointed Filippo Pappalardo as head of Americas multinationals.

Moody’s said on Wednesday that Ardagh’s issuance of $4.5bn of bonds late on April 29 was credit positive for the B2/B rated Irish glass and metal packaging manufacturer.