Records continued to fall in the first quarter as banks ably managed a rolling wave of volatility: Goldman Sachs delivered an all-time high on Wall Street for equities trading, JP Morgan produced the second-best fixed income quarter ever, and advisory and underwriting fees were the highest in years.

HSBC's head of banking for Europe and the Americas, Gerry Keefe, has resigned to take up a role outside banking, and Karim Tannir, its head of banking for the Middle East, North African and Turkey region, is also leaving, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The finance industry is breathing a sigh of relief over revisions to incoming US bank capital rules that lobbyists had warned in their earlier iteration could increase systemic risk in the US$846trn derivatives market.

Investment banking fees at the big five US banks jumped 30% last quarter, despite the breakout of war in Iran casting a pall over capital markets in March after booming activity in the first two months of the year.

Edged Compute is preparing a US$1.3bn junk bond to back the development of AI data centers leased to CoreWeave and Alibaba, marking another debut foray for this growing corner of the asset class.

Amprion saw more than €9bn in orders for its €1bn inaugural hybrid on Monday as it looks to fund an “aggressive” capital expenditure programme.

Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank has issued the first US dollar sukuk since the Middle East war began, according to sources, through a private placement that was subsequently tapped.

Euro FIG supply has once more fallen silent while market participants monitor reactions to the latest escalation in the Middle East conflict. A handful of issuers that had been eyeing the covered and senior sectors opted to hold their horses on Monday. 

Preplaced securitisation supply has surged across Europe in the opening months of 2026, as issuers move early to refinance maturing deals and hedge against renewed market volatility, according to bankers and investors.

European CLO primary remains stuck on pause, with just a handful of deals making their way through the market as managers struggle with increasingly uneconomic arbitrage dynamics and bankers toil to engage with investors made skittish by the volatility brought on by the Middle East war.  

Luxembourg-based digital bank Advanzia Bank has successfully priced its debut public ABS issue, as the first ever securitisation of German credit card receivables benefited from improved market sentiment. 

European ABS was dominated by auto deals in the past week, with four issues, including a Swiss lease ABS, coming to market despite ongoing volatility from the war in Iran.

Taiwanese container shipping company Evergreen Marine sailed into the US dollar bond market for the first time on Thursday with a US$300m green bond. 

French utility Engie's use of a green hybrid to part-finance its £10.5bn acquisition of electricity distributor UK Power Networks is a rare example of green M&A financing issued under the company's sustainability financing framework. 

Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, said the negative narrative around ESG and sustainable finance and investing is at odds with the positive market dynamic it is seeing as responsible investment remains resilient despite the uncertainty. 

SpareBank 1 Sor-Norge attracted colossal demand on Monday as it visited the euro market for the first time since May 2024, with a €500m six-year non-call five green senior non-preferred trade that was more than five times subscribed.

Jersey Mike’s announced today that it has confidentially filed for an IPO, a move that comes a little more than a year after Blackstone acquired a majority stake in the sandwich retailer for US$8bn.

The Liftoff Mobile IPO is back on after the adtech company filed documents with the SEC on April 17 to go public, reviving a deal that was pulled just two months ago.

The US IPO market is in the early stages of a sustained recovery as investors look past geopolitical uncertainty to seize on opportunities aligned with a domestic-first economic agenda.

Seeds and crop protection powerhouse Syngenta Group is looking to file confidentially as early as June for a giant Hong Kong IPO, said people with knowledge of the matter. 

US leveraged finance markets are beginning to come back to life, as a two-week ceasefire in the US war with Iran has created a narrow but actionable window for issuers to return with riskier debt offerings.

Building materials credits have come under sharp pressure, as investors react to the sector’s sensitivity to the economic cycle and inflation concerns triggered by the war in Iran.

Leveraged finance bankers are confident that demand is ready and waiting to meet supply, with momentum building behind LBO deals, although there is little pressure forcing issuers to move ahead with transactions.

Ford Motor, an early US adopter of the sustainability-linked loan framework, has removed the incentive from its revolving credit facilities as part of a wider exercise to amend US$21bn of its loans.

There is a tremendous amount of fuss surrounding Bill Ackman’s proposal to acquire the outstanding shares in Universal Music Group: an announcement , a detailed presentation deck and a headline 78% premium comprising part cash and part scrip. Typical M&A theatre, at least on the surface. Yet when the smoke clears, what remains looks far less like a genuine bid than a self-help exercise.

Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser manages a team of rivals who might aspire to her job. Competition is healthy but appointing a new president as a deputy could help Fraser deliver the next phase of her growth plan.

It is unusual for a listed company to buy income-bearing securities of a peer as a treasury decision. In orthodox corporate finance, surplus capital is meant to do one of three things: fund projects that clear the hurdle rate, preserve liquidity, or be returned to shareholders. It is not normally redeployed into another company exposed to much the same trade, especially at a lower yield than the investing company pays on its own stock.

Private credit mishaps are coming at us with such speed and intensity that many of the stories are blurring into one. But rather than the private credit crisis dragging banks down, it might give them an opportunity to play offensively in this space.