JP Morgan has tapped Catherine O’Donnell as the new head of North America leveraged finance, as the investment bank rejiggers its leveraged finance leadership team, according to a Tuesday memo obtained by LPC.

Greece has joined the club of SSAs probing digital bonds with a simulated security running on distributed ledger technology.

Analysis by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has concluded that the growing synthetic risk transfer markets, which are estimated at €750bn across the euro area, UK, US and Canada, pose lower risks than credit securitisation initiatives carried out before the 2008 financial crisis.

Ulf Erlandsson is leaving the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, the prominent ESG research and advocacy body he founded six years ago, to return to Swedish state pension fund AP4, though he will remain a director at philanthropy-funded AFII.

Two major chemicals entities in the Ineos conglomerate have seen their issuer and debt ratings downgraded by S&P, with the agency stating that it does not anticipate a sustained recovery in operating rates and margins in the industry before 2028. 

European high-yield issuers that have yet to refinance their 2027 debt maturities are drawing increased attention, with uncertainty around their next moves driving volatility in their bonds.

Mizuho Securities, an investment banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group, has lost three bond deals after the watchdog's investigations into the bank for alleged insider trading.

Michaels is back in the US high-yield market after a long hiatus as the Apollo-backed arts and crafts store takes advantage of a rally in its bonds to pay upcoming debt maturities, cleaning up its capital structure ahead of an expected IPO in coming years.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is planning public consultations that could lead to an easing in the reporting and due diligence requirements in the securitisation market, according to people familiar with the matter, as the watchdog moves to finetune its post-Brexit securitisation regime.

MA Money encountered some indigestion for its seventh and largest RMBS issue to date, the upsized A$1.25bn-equivalent (US$880m) non-conforming MA Money Residential Securitisation Trust 2026-1, which included the issuer's inaugural yen tranche.

London-based Fasanara Capital is joining Park Square and Golub Capital in the latest wave of managers pressing ahead with the development of European CLO platforms.

A raft of new private credit CLOs in Europe will come as a relief for a market that has lacked enough issuance of new broadly syndicated leveraged loan deals to fuel the CLO machine. There are potentially eight private credit CLOs making their way into the market, sources say, reflecting the boom in private credit loans and increasing investor comfort with a sector that could offer higher spreads versus CLOs backed by broadly syndicated loans. 

Two leading Asian borrowers are poised to take biodiversity financing to a new level as China and the Philippines prepare the first sovereign bonds that will dedicate proceeds to addressing biodiversity loss and protecting natural ecosystems.

Tokyo and London are collaborating on transition finance as the two global financial centres join forces to develop the fledgling transition bond market.

South Africa's FirstRand Group's transition finance framework offers a blueprint for structuring the next round of transition deals for issuers in emerging and developing markets. 

The International Capital Market Association is concerned that Europe's proposed Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation 2.0 could have the unintended consequence of stifling the sustainable fund market. 

Fincantieri raised €499.3m on Wednesday evening with the Italian shipbuilder looking to increase production capacity, accelerate deleveraging and support acquisitions.

Debenhams Group, the rebranded online retailer Boohoo Group, raised £40m in an accelerated bookbuild on Wednesday night after upsizing a much-anticipated offer.

Compass Pathways is seeking to raise US$150m through a marketed follow-on sale of stock to bridge liquidity ahead of a potential regulatory approval of its psychedelic treatment for depression.

Robinhood Markets is seeking to raise US$1bn from a closed-end fund designed to invest in private companies, broadening access to retail investors ahead of what could be one of the biggest IPO cycles in capital markets history.

KKR is handing over the keys of Accell to the company's lenders, with the Dutch bicycle manufacturer set to engage in a significant debt reduction and receive additional funding, Accell announced on Wednesday.

India has eased the external commercial borrowing rules by raising the borrowing limits and removing the pricing cap, a move expected to make offshore funding significantly easier for domestic corporates.

Utility firm Portland General Electric has commitments for an unsecured US$1.9bn 364-day bridge loan in place to support its approximately US$1.9bn acquisition of Washington state generation, transmission and electric utility operations from PacifCorp. 

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.

The AI boom has been backed by investor enthusiasm – and their money – on an unprecedented scale. Investment bankers have high hopes of a huge year for deals. But just like the broader economy, will this be a K-shaped market for tech deals?

How stable is a stablecoin? That is a question that S&P attempts to answer via its Global Ratings’ Stablecoin Stability Assessment, a product designed to quantify a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its peg to a fiat currency. It produces a score from 1, very strong, to 5, weak.

A quick glance at investment bank share prices over the past year tells a story: business is booming and the outlook is rosy. The question now, in the middle of reporting and bonus season, is how much of the profits will bank bosses have to give away to their staff.