London Stock Exchange Group's new set of ESG scores and sustainability analytics aims to make data more transparent and comparable, and easier for global financial markets to use and analyse in preparation for greater automation. 

Electronic Arts has extended the tender offer for its two outstanding bonds for a further seven weeks, after holders of only 5%, by value, of the US$1.5bn notes accepted the proposal by the time the initial offer period closed on March 11. 

Hong Kong's securities regulator on Thursday said it conducted a joint operation with the city's statutory anti-corruption body targeting alleged insider dealing and corruption at two securities firms and a hedge fund management firm and made eight arrests.

Kepler Cheuvreux has appointed Frederic Meron as chief executive and Christophe Leblanc as his deputy.

Electronic Arts has extended the tender offer for its two outstanding bonds for a further seven weeks, after holders of only 5%, by value, of the US$1.5bn notes accepted the proposal by the time the initial offer period closed on March 11. 

High-grade investors are being given their first chance to buy exposure to Airbnb on Thursday as the vacation rental company prepares a US$2.5bn inaugural investment-grade bond to take out convertible notes.

A £1.25bn five-year covered bond priced by Bank of Nova Scotia on Thursday showed how pricing levels for such bonds have remained remarkably consistent in spite of a turbulent backdrop, as the issuer matched the result achieved by one of its peers seven weeks earlier. 

Amazon smashed the record for the biggest ever corporate bond sale on Wednesday after it printed a €14.5bn deal that came on top of a US$37bn offering in the US market the day before. 

As the broader credit market reopened, securitisation took off on Tuesday, with eight deals moving through the market: three fresh announcements of new issues and five releasing initial price thought details. 

A consortium of US housing industry groups on Tuesday urged US lawmakers to drop a provision in a bill that would force developers to sell so-called "build to rent" homes in seven years, a move that analysts say would likely decrease funding in the securitization market for these types of properties. 

Confidence returned reasonably quickly in the securitisation market in Europe last week after a war-induced shaky start when a few structured deals that had been lined up for Monday were pushed back.

The collapse of Market Financial Solutions is offering fresh evidence that the “cockroaches” JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned of last year are not confined to the US, as a clearer picture emerges of the lending various banks provided to the failed UK mortgage lender. 

Angola is poised to refine the debt-for-education swap playbook pioneered by Ivory Coast in 2024 as part of a new US$1.1bn financing package.

British International Investment, the UK’s national development finance institution, and emerging markets private credit investor ILX have inaugurated a US$500m impact financing partnership with their long-awaited first joint deal.

While the US-led war in Iran is reinforcing the importance of energy security and strengthening the strategic rationale for the energy transition, implementation could be delayed by governments' changing spending priorities and strategic sustainable finance deals could be postponed in the short-term. 

Swiss private bank and wealth management firm Union Bancaire Privee's Positive Impact Emerging Equity strategy is facing the happy problem of how to invest potential inflows as early investments in the energy transition are paying off amid a steep rally in emerging markets. 

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square has revived plans for a US$5bn–$10bn NYSE listing of Pershing Square USA (PSUS), an ambitious closed-end fund intended to provide the hedge fund with a new source of permanent capital.

National Stock Exchange has selected 20 banks for its IPO, a record number for an Indian float.

Shares in Saudi construction materials business Saleh Abdulaziz Al Rashed & Sons Company rose on debut on Wednesday, marking a positive data point as the first debut in the region since the start of the conflict in Iran.

While market volatility has increased in recent weeks, bankers started 2026 with a broadly positive outlook for European ECM, as shown by Queens Lane Advisory's survey of 59 ECM practitioners across 42 banks, law and accounting firms and stock exchanges.

Direct lenders in the US and Europe are leaning into the latest bout of market volatility, arguing that wider spreads, tighter documentation and lower leverage are creating a more attractive environment for deployment.

SoftBank Group is in talks with relationship banks for a mammoth bridge financing of up to US$40bn to fund a new investment in OpenAI, in what could become its largest loan yet and one of the biggest ever from Asia Pacific. 

News and entertainment company Nexstar Media Group is seeking to raise a US$2.75bn senior secured term loan B that, alongside other financing, will fund its US$6.2bn acquisition of local news broadcast business Tegna.

The collapse of Market Financial Solutions follows a familiar and concerning pattern. According to documents submitted to London’s High Court at the commencement of its administration process, MFS may have double-pledged assets, potentially leaving a collateral shortfall of £930m. Loans to MFS totalled £1.16bn, and there was only £230m of “true value” available in the collateral accounts.

It is unbecoming to say “I told you so”, but when it comes to Meta Platforms’ US$27.3bn project bond to fund its Hyperion data centre via private credit shop Blue Owl Capital (and SPV Beignet Investor) the temptation is strong. I wrote in late 2025 that Meta’s decision not to consolidate the debt on its balance sheet sits uneasily with the economic risk that investors have assumed they are taking when they bought the deal in October. And now Meta’s auditor, EY, clearly feels this same tension.

Full-year earnings from European banks – Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and UBS – showed them broadly holding market share in the markets’ business, but struggling to capitalise on the upswing in investment banking. 

The repo market is the heartbeat of bond markets. Like a real heartbeat, when all is well, there is nothing more boring. But when things go wrong … watch out.