Wells Fargo Securities

Yankee bank and insurance names took centre stage in the dollar market as US banks prepared to give their first insight into the impact of the coronavirus with the arrival of bank earnings season.

Robert Ritchie is joining Wells Fargo as head of banking and capital markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Investment banking revenue in March was lower than normal as the coronavirus pandemic sapped risk appetite — but it was far from a total wipeout.

Lloyds Banking Group became the first Yankee bank to access dollar funding for almost a month when it came to the market with a new senior deal on Thursday.

Oil firms burst into the corporate bond market on Thursday with BP, Royal Dutch Shell and OMV opening books on multi-tranche trades, as comments from US president Donald Trump sent oil prices rocketing.

Hong Kong's AIA Group and China's Baidu reopened the Asian bond market this week, proving that investors are still willing to commit to the right credits ─ as long as they come at the right price. Morgan Davis reports.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary capital markets activity. The North American corporate bond market funded a staggering record $194bn of investment grade issues in March while Europe has also been busy — shaking up the league tables and yielding a surprise windfall for the very largest investment banks.

Bank of Montreal reopened the dollar market for Yankee banks this week, using ‘shadow books’ to quickly wrap up the sale of its floating-rate note.

Bank of America signalled the last hurrah of post-earnings supply by Wall Street heavyweights when it hit the market on Monday with a $5bn bond.

Wells Fargo has reorganised its group structure, including hiving out its corporate and investment bank as a separate business line and giving it a new leader.

The Reverse Yankee market could be set for another strong year in 2020, with Wells Fargo adding last week to an already encouraging running supply total in the format.

Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs accounted for the lion’s share of dollar FIG supply this week as they led a return of senior unsecured issuance following a glut of preferred supply.