People News

New IB head at Santander Banco Santander has appointed Banesto CEO José García Cantera to run the global wholesale banking franchise. He replaces Adolfo Lagos, who is due to retire next year.

Barclays launches $6bn BlackRock sale Barclays on Monday launched a $6bn sale of its entire 19.6% stake in asset manager BlackRock, in advance of the implementation of punitive capital charges under Basel III.

Loan portfolio buyers increase, discounts fall as bank eye deleveraging The number of investors looking at buying loan portfolios is increasing, and the discounts they are negotiating are falling, according to a survey that should cheer Europe’s capital-hungry banks.

Robur Fonder hires SEB syndicate banker for bond fund Robur Fonder, a fund management group owned by Swedbank, has hired Tony Clark as a senior fund manager on its corporate bond fund, working alongside Christian Leonhard and Fredrik Mattson.

Spain mandates two for bank stress tests The Bank of Spain has hired Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman to stress test its banks, but is yet to hire firms to take a close look at the value of the assets on balance sheets, it said on Monday.

BNPP goes global with new position for Marks BNP Paribas has promoted Christopher Marks to global head of debt capital markets, a position that has not existed at the bank for some years.

EuroWeek Bond Awards – Full Results EuroWeek celebrated 25 years of bond market coverage on Tuesday May 15 with a gala dinner to honour the most impressive banks, bankers, borrowers and funding officials in the market today. In the EuroWeek tradition, we asked market participants to vote for the award winners and below is the full list of the award winners and runners-up. Many thanks to all who joined us at Guildhall for making the night such a special one, to all who voted in the Awards polls and helped with the process, and many congratulations to all our winners. For more information on the award methodology, contact Katie Llanos-Small, fixed income editor: kllanos-small@euroweek.com.

EuroWeek Bond Dinner 2012

Lamberg heads to HK Crédit Agricole’s MTN head, Ben Lamberg, is set to move to Hong Kong to head the bank’s debt business for Asia including Japan, EuroWeek understands. The job is a new one that has been created as part of a strengthening of the bank’s Asia franchise.

The EuroWeek 25: The most influential participants in the bond markets To mark EuroWeek’s 25th anniversary at this year’s Bond Market Dinner, special awards were given out to the 25 most influential people working in the capital markets today.

Troika push still on in FIG, equity syndicate The investment banking expansion at the merged Troika Dialog and Sberbank picked up pace this week with new hires in Moscow and London.

Hearn calls time on Mizuho stint Paul Hearn, CEO of Mizuho International, is resigning from the firm after two and a half years in which he has presided over the transformation of the business from what was essentially a prop shop into what he now sees as a full service operation.

Fitch piles more pressure on covered bonds Covered bonds came under more ratings pressure on Wednesday after Fitch said it could downgrade a quarter of the deals it rates by up to two notches under tougher new rules.

Europe CRD agreement brings Basel III closer Europe took big strides towards implementing Basel III rules this week, with a grouping of European finance ministers (Ecofin) agreeing to drafts of the new capital requirements directive and regulation.

Bankia hits back as pressure mounts on Spain’s banks Market pressure was heaped on Spanish savings group Bankia this week, with the lender forced to reassure depositors on Thursday that their cash was safe as the bank’s share price tumbled.

HSBC’s Flint warns on one-size-fits-all bail-ins Douglas Flint, chairman of HSBC, this week underlined his bank’s support of the regulatory concept of forcing losses on bondholders through bail-in. Speaking at a HSBC financial institutions conference, Flint also warned that much more work needed to be done to iron out potential problems with the framework.

MiFIR ‘counter-productive’ but compromise seen as likely The European Commission’s bid to improve pre-trade and post-trade price transparency through regulation is counter-productive, the European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) said in a response to EC proposals for regulation on markets in financial instruments (MiFIR).

HSBC’s Flint warns against one-size-fits-all approach to bail-ins At an HSBC conference on financial institutions, group chairman Douglas Flint said his bank firmly supported bail-in as a concept but that much more worked need to be done to iron out potential problems with the framework.

JP Morgan hires Zhao to run emerging Asia FIG JPMorgan has hired a new head of its financial institutions group in emerging Asia, finding a partial replacement for Olivier de Grivel, the former head of the business across Asia Pacific.

Citi picks Ahmed as new Philippine CIB head Citi has given its head of Islamic banking in Asia a job running its corporate and investment bank in the Philippines, asking Usman Ahmed to replace Kristine Braden, who is now moving to the global subsidiaries business.

Italian bank CDS tighter despite Moody’s action Italian banks’ CDS levels tightened in with the rest of the market on Tuesday, despite Moody’s downgrading the long and short term ratings of 26 Italian banks by up to four notches.

Capital ratios to suffer as Spain’s banks calculate provisions Spain’s national champions say new provisioning requirements will not materially hurt their capital ratios. But the rules will have a larger effect on the smaller institutions.

The EuroWeek Bond Dinner is Tomorrow Night: Tuesday, May 15th. Please note the venue is: The Guildhall, Gresham Street, London, EC2 Doors open: 6.30pm The EuroWeek team is looking forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions, please contact Sara Posnasky on +44 (0) 20 7779 7301, sposnasky@euroweek.com

Covered bond market shaken by 3CIF’s mystery suspension This week’s shocking suspension of Caisse Centrale du Crédit Immobilier de France’s covered bonds from Euronext and the Luxembourg stock exchange has left capital market participants bewildered and angry.

‘Errors, sloppiness and bad judgement’: JP Morgan rocked by $2bn CIO loss shock JP Morgan was forced into a humiliating disclosure of $2bn of losses in a synthetic credit portfolio within its Chief Investment Office (CIO) on Thursday, having spent weeks batting away media speculation that bets within that division amounted to anything other than normal hedging.

DK bankers win bonus case, Commerz not certain to appeal A group of 104 former Dresdner Kleinwort bankers have won their court case against Commerzbank, in which they were seeking payment of bonuses that they said were promised to them shortly before Commerz bought the bank. The unpaid bonus claim totals about €52m.

Commerzbank ‘proud’ to hit EBA target early Commerzbank suffered unfortunate timing this week as its defeat in its long-running Dresdner Kleinwort bonus saga (see story on back page and below) was announced on the same day as its first quarter results — unfortunate, because in some business lines the bank had a good story to tell.

HSBC beats expectations as GBM drives growth HSBC on Tuesday beat consensus profit expectations thanks to strong performances from its global banking and markets (GBM) and commercial banking (CMB) divisions, complemented by increased revenues from its balance sheet management business as it continued to shed unwanted assets.

Agricultural loans put pressure on Danish banks The risk profile of Danish agricultural loans is putting pressure on the country’s borrowers and their covered bonds, Moody’s said on Wednesday. Standard & Poor’s added to the gloom, reporting that Danish banks were vulnerable to a rise in interest rates, which would be particularly painful for the agricultural sector and could hamper the banking system’s recovery.

Dutch austerity plan to hit mortgage tax breaks The Dutch austerity package, which was finally proposed at the end of last week, includes commitments to increase tax receipts by reducing the proportion of tax beneficial mortgages. The measures will change the behaviour of mortgage holders and have an impact on future RMBS transactions, according to ABS market participants.

New EMEA ECM head for Citi as Harvey-Samuel moves up Citi has changed the leadership of its EMEA equity capital markets unit, creating a new chairman position to focus on client relationships and promoting one of its senior CEEMEA bankers to head the unit.

Cairn Capital adds former BoE adviser to ABS team Cairn Capital, an asset management and advisory firm, has bolstered its ABS asset management team by hiring Philippa Charlton, a former senior adviser in the markets division at the Bank of England.

‘Satisfactory’ first quarter for Natixis as CIB keeps up pace French lender Natixis has reported a mild rebound in corporate and investment banking activity versus the final quarter of 2011 but a 36% drop in year on year pre-tax profit for the division.

VTB loses syndicate head The head of equity syndicate at VTB Capital in London left the bank on Tuesday, EuroWeek understands. Tom Kennedy is expected to re-emerge at another firm in due course.

NZ to have covered law before end of 2012 Covered bond legislation was introduced into the New Zealand parliament on Thursday. The new law, which should be in place by the end of this year, will establish a register for covered bond programmes and require an independent cover pool monitor.

Greece hammers Credit Agricole profits Credit Agricole SA’s pre-tax profit for the first quarter 2012 was only a little more than half what it was in the first quarter last year, largely because its cost of risk more than doubled over the same period. That increase was mainly down to provisions on Greece.