HSBC has appointed Denise Odaro as head of sustainable finance and transition for Europe and the Americas. 

(Reuters) - Investment banking giant Morgan Stanley has laid off about 3% of its workforce, or roughly 2,500 employees, across all divisions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Scotiabank has hired Dennis Eisele as managing director and head of LatAm fixed income origination.  

DBS Group Holdings on Wednesday said it has secured a principal underwriting licence for non-financial corporate bonds from China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors.

A pair of US dollar trades from HSBC and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken are leading the resumption of bank bond issuance on Thursday as markets bounce back in defiance of the ongoing Middle East war, with more supply expected to follow. 

The euro corporate investment-grade market reopened in style on Thursday as three US issuers joined one European borrower to raise €6bn between them.

Energy names Baker Hughes and Eaton Corp are headlining a renewal in activity in the euro and dollar high-grade bond markets with two jumbo acquisition-related trades as borrowers finally emerge from a two-day lull sparked by the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East.

Bankers and lawyers covering Europe's high-yield market say a backlog of deals could return in a carefully choreographed fashion once conditions stabilise following the onset of war in the Middle East.    

The Australian RMBS market is taking a breather as investors and issuers await calmer waters after the US/Israeli military attack on Iran sparked a spike in global credit spreads.

The European ABS market is edging back to life after an almost two-day pause following the outbreak of war in Iran, with participants expecting spreads to move wider as primary activity resumes.

London-listed UK subprime lender Vanquis Banking Group, formerly known as Provident Financial, may be preparing a return to the securitisation market five years after its debut transaction of a pool of credit cards, according to public filings.

The sudden collapse of UK-based mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions and the war in Iran have cast a pall on sentiment around deals, with a handful of European structured finance transactions pulled early Monday, according to bankers. 

HSBC has appointed Denise Odaro as head of sustainable finance and transition for Europe and the Americas. 

Germany's new green Bund is leading the SSA supply that will be executed this week despite the weekend's US-Israeli attack on Iran.

The International Finance Corp has signed a US$6bn insurance-backed facility that marks the World Bank Group member’s largest single mobilisation of private capital. 

Legal & General is committing as much as US$1bn to credit-enhanced emerging markets development investing that will include both sovereign debt-for-development swaps and new structures. 

German tank part supplier Vincorion could launch a €300m–€350m Frankfurt IPO on Friday in the wake of submarine components business Gabler Group's €115.5m float in which more than half the orders were not allocated any shares due to strong demand.

Medtronic appears headed toward a difficult go/no-go decision on the IPO of its MiniMed diabetes unit amid investor pushback on valuation.

The IPO of German submarine parts business Gabler Group is heavily oversubscribed with demand in excess of €1bn as investors look past the war in the Middle East and resulting market volatility.

The KSh106.3bn (US$823.3m) IPO of Kenya Pipeline Company is 105.7% subscribed largely led by local and regional accounts.

The Walt Disney Company has entered into US$9.25bn of loans. 

A Macquarie Asset Management-led consortium has launched a A$4.95bn (US$3.5bn) loan to fund its buyout of Australia’s undefined Qube Holdings.  

Paramount Skydance has agreed to a US$3.5bn 364-day senior secured revolving credit facility as part of the financing package backing its US$110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.

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.