Brexit

Mersen, a French technology manufacturer, will not accept bids from UK-based lenders for its new Schuldschein “in anticipation of a potential Brexit”. Three bankers away from the transaction said they have also discussed excluding UK lenders with other borrowers.

There was a dark mood in equity markets on Wednesday morning after the UK parliament rejected prime minister Theresa May’s negotiated Brexit withdrawal agreement by a huge majority for a second time. A possible delay to the UK's departure from the EU and all of the crippling uncertainty that entails is set to continue to hamstring equity capital markets.

The £200m ($262.56m) listing of Global Sustainability Trust, a London socially responsible investing (SRI) private equity vehicle, has been postponed due to negative market conditions — primarily the political chaos surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU).

Trading platform operator Tradeweb has received regulatory approvals to operate trading venues from Amsterdam as it solidifies its preparations for Brexit.

Mizuho International said it had hired Christoph Seibel, head of EMEA corporate debt capital markets at RBC Capital Markets, to be chief executive of its EU operations, Mizuho Securities Europe.

Twenty-seven universal banks, investment banks and brokerages have confirmed or are considering moving operations or staff from the UK to the rest of the EU, according to EY. Paris is gaining in popularity as a destination for UK financial services firms, but Dublin appears to be the top choice.

The European Commission has finally confirmed that it will grant temporary equivalence to UK central counterparty clearing houses (CCPs) and central securities depositories (CSDs) in the event of a no deal Brexit.

Investors are moving to abandon UK assets in record numbers as the country’s government continues to stumble towards a calamitous no-deal Brexit. The government should take notice and reverse to avoid disaster.

SEC chairman Jay Clayton warned the US Senate Committee on Banking about risks to US capital markets from Brexit, in a hearing conducted on Tuesday.

Rising hopes that the UK can escape the nightmare of Brexit are misplaced. A second referendum would carry huge risks, and even if the outcome were Remain, it would leave an unstable Britain with a damaged relationship with the rest of the EU.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday seemed to side with the Bank of England in demanding more clarity from European authorities on how they plan to alleviate post-Brexit derivatives disruption.

The Council of the European Union has approved its final version of a controversial legislative proposal that seeks to overhaul the bloc’s oversight of clearing houses.