Japan

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed two senior bankers as co-presidents of Asia Pacific, succeeding Matthew Koder who took on a new position last year.

In this round-up, China’s foreign exchange reserves rebounded slightly for the second month in a row, Standard Chartered’s index for international RMB usage fell again, and China's consumer price index (CPI) inflation decelerated at the close of 2018.

Société Générale is strengthening its debt capital market capabilities in Asia Pacific by creating a new Japan team under Yohei Abo.

Aircraft leasing company Avolon has returned to the offshore syndications market for a $300m loan.

Housing Development Finance Corp is taking the Samurai loan route for its second syndicated financing of the year.

ING completed a deal in the Tokyo Pro-Bond market this week, raising over $1bn equivalent on a week in which it could not find acceptable demand in dollars. It was also able to distribute notes to regional banks before debt counting towards total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) weighs more heavily on those buyers’ balance sheets.

CPI Property, which owns real estate in Berlin and central and eastern Europe, entered Tokyo’s Pro-Bond market on Friday, raising ¥11bn ($97m) across three and 10 years tranches.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association on Tuesday said the derivatives industry seemed to have broadly agreed on a method of calculating replacement rates, known as fallback rates, for interbank offered rates (Ibors), in case those rates stop being calculated.

Bank of China sold green bonds denominated in yen and offshore renminbi (CNH) last week, ending its long absence in the Japanese market.

International banks have been raiding the yen market for loss-absorbing debt in recent weeks, with volatile conditions casting doubt on deal execution in other currencies.

Japanese pharmaceuticals company Takeda implemented the first part of its financing of a £46bn takeover of UK biotech firm Shire on Thursday. The company used a six tranche combination to raise €7.5bn on its debut in the euro market.

Crédit Agricole was marketing five tranches of Euroyen bonds this week, following a very popular offering in the format from BNP Paribas earlier this year.