United States

A sell-off in global equities at the beginning of last week, in response to the Delta-variant-fueled rise in Covid-19 cases, was largely erased in the following days. But the episode offered a glimpse of the disquiet in the market, and a hint as to the likely reaction if the pandemic were to take a course that put the brakes on economic growth.

NatWest Markets has given its head of emerging markets strategy, Alvaro Vivanco, an additional role as head of ESG macro strategy.

SMBC has beefed up its coverage of the technology sector with the addition of two senior bankers in San Francisco who previously worked together at HSBC.

The People & Markets section of GlobalCapital could almost have been called the Barclays section this week, given the number of stories that involved the bank. What has been going on?

British Airways issued its first sustainability-linked bond this week, something still very rare in the airline industry. It was one of only a handful of issuers that braved volatility to enter the US corporate bond market this week.

In 2016, JP Morgan launched a service to help its corporate clients fill board positions with directors well versed in corporate governance. Now, as board composition comes under ever greater scrutiny, the bank is expanding the offering into EMEA.

Moelis & Company has hired senior equity syndicate banker Melissa Mariaschin from Barclays in New York as the boutique investment bank expands its capital markets capabilities.

Barclays has elevated Jean Francois (JF) Astier and John Miller to co-heads of investment banking as part of a raft of promotions in New York that also include the appointments of Kristin Roth DeClark and Taylor Wright as global co-heads of capital markets.

Robinhood’s mission to democratise stock markets is taking its inevitable next step with its own initial public offering, of which it says it will sell between 20% to 35% to retail investors. But while opening up the IPO investor base beyond the institutional investor clique sounds good in theory, such transactions remain extremely risky for retail investors.

UBS opened the European bank earnings season on Tuesday with a strong set of results from its M&A and capital markets businesses, which CEO Ralph Hamers seized as an opportunity to play up the importance of talented bankers over the generous application of balance sheet.

Michelle Neal has left her position as head of US fixed income, currencies and commodities trading at RBC Capital Markets in New York to take a leading role at high tech corporate bond trading platform LedgerEdge.

Santander intends to enhance its fixed income offering in the US by buying Amherst Pierpont Securities, a broker-dealer based in New York, for $600m.