United States

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.

Large US banks are expected to turn their attention to the euro market next week, having raised $21.75bn of debt in their home currency after reporting their latest results.

A huge Japanese financial holding company is buying a stake in a US investment bank. Where have we seen that before?

As Western companies operating in Hong Kong await the details of a warning from the US State Department about the risks of doing business in the special administrative region, analysts say the growing rift between China and the US is putting HSBC in an especially uncomfortable position.

Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has formed an alliance with Jefferies and is providing the US investment bank with capital to pursue its ambitions in leveraged finance.

Royalty Pharma was the lone corporate issuer in the US dollar bond market this week, as earnings blackouts snuffed out supply.

US banks added to their massive dollar funding spree this week, as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America took home a combined $22bn after reporting strong second quarter earnings.