The mutual savings bank that loves M&A

When a posse of high-powered Paris dealmakers threatened to walk out of Natixis because they were being treated like “just another employee”, rivals said ‘I told you so’. They were sure Natixis’s unique way of doing M&A banking was falling apart.

Nine months later, not so. France’s fourth largest investment bank, owned by the mutual savings bank group BPCE, is sticking to its plan ― and doubling down. Natixis’s ploy is, rather than trying to build its own M&A department, buying stakes in a growing network of independent boutiques. As investment banking correspondent David Rothnie explains, the key to managing this potentially unruly throng is flexibility.

Before that, we look with corporate debt editor Mike Turner at how investors are pouring money into environmental, social and governance bond funds this year, and how that is playing out for issuers.

And with the first round of the French parliamentary election coming this weekend, bank finance editor Atanas Dinov explores what the outcome could do to French access to the capital markets, especially for banks.