HSBC Holdings said it remains confident in the Gulf states' long-term strength and resilience, as markets assess the economic impact on the Middle East from the war between the US/Israel and Iran.

Jefferies said it expects to recoup 85% of the £103m it lent to Market Financial Solutions, the UK-headquartered bridge loan provider that was put into administration at the end of February.

JP Morgan has hired Fergus Horrobin from UBS as head of international real estate investment banking, as part of its building up of its real estate team.

The €3.8bn listing of Czechoslovak Group in January and Anduril Industries’ plan to raise US$4bn or more in private markets are spearheading a surge in equity capital markets and private fundraising across the defence and aerospace sector, which bankers said looks set to accelerate – especially for defence technology firms.

Amazon is seizing on improving sentiment to approach investors with jumbo euro and dollar bond sales as the tech firm helps revive an investment-grade market that has suffered a series of stops and starts since the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East earlier this month.  

With markets latching onto hope of a de-escalation in the war in the Middle East, Royal Bank of Canada conducted a much-awaited test of the euro covered bond market on Tuesday, achieving size through a €2.25bn dual-tranche trade split across three-year and seven-year segments.

Amazon announced its debut euro mandate on Tuesday with an eight-part deal that is expected to raise about €10bn as the corporate market swung back into action on the back of a rally in financial assets.

The European Union, UK Debt Management Office and KfW elicited strong demand across the three major funding currencies in a strong statement of SSAs' ability to price through geopolitical volatility.

Confidence returned reasonably quickly in the securitisation market in Europe last week after a war-induced shaky start when a few structured deals that had been lined up for Monday were pushed back.

The collapse of Market Financial Solutions is offering fresh evidence that the “cockroaches” JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned of last year are not confined to the US, as a clearer picture emerges of the lending various banks provided to the failed UK mortgage lender. 

The Australian RMBS market is taking a breather as investors and issuers await calmer waters after the US/Israeli military attack on Iran sparked a spike in global credit spreads.

Redwood Trust sold its first-ever securitised deal backed by non-qualified mortgages as the specialty finance company continued to make a push into the market for homebuyers and renters who do not necessarily meet traditional lending requirements.

British International Investment, the UK’s national development finance institution, and emerging markets private credit investor ILX have inaugurated a US$500m impact financing partnership with their long-awaited first joint deal.

While the US-led war in Iran is reinforcing the importance of energy security and strengthening the strategic rationale for the energy transition, implementation could be delayed by governments' changing spending priorities and strategic sustainable finance deals could be postponed in the short-term. 

Swiss private bank and wealth management firm Union Bancaire Privee's Positive Impact Emerging Equity strategy is facing the happy problem of how to invest potential inflows as early investments in the energy transition are paying off amid a steep rally in emerging markets. 

Finnish steelmaker Outokumpu is positioning itself as a sector leader in energy transition as a low-carbon "green steel" manufacturer and is using an internal carbon price to assess all decarbonisation investments. 

Duke Energy raised an upsized US$1.3bn late Monday from a new convertible bond to repay an existing issue that is maturing in a month's time.

Madison Air publicly filed for a NYSE IPO late Monday after Blackstone-backed HVAC peer Legence posted an 80%-plus surge in its share price since its September listing.

Walmart-backed Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce company, said it has received the necessary government approval to shift its domicile to India from Singapore, paving the way for a domestic listing. 

German submarine components maker Gabler Group was struggling to hold above water on debut on Monday, with shares trading above issue until after 1pm in London against the backdrop of indices falling across Europe and Asia.

SoftBank Group is in talks with relationship banks for a mammoth bridge financing of up to US$40bn to fund a new investment in OpenAI, in what could become its largest loan yet and one of the biggest ever from Asia Pacific. 

News and entertainment company Nexstar Media Group is seeking to raise a US$2.75bn senior secured term loan B that, alongside other financing, will fund its US$6.2bn acquisition of local news broadcast business Tegna.

AirTrunk has completed a ¥191.6bn (US$1.21bn) green loan for refinancing and continued development of its data centre in Tokyo, marking the largest financing from the sector in Japan.

Banks underwriting roughly US$57.5bn of debt backing Paramount Skydance’s US$110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery are expected to tap global credit markets to place one of the largest takeover financings ever arranged. 

The collapse of Market Financial Solutions follows a familiar and concerning pattern. According to documents submitted to London’s High Court at the commencement of its administration process, MFS may have double-pledged assets, potentially leaving a collateral shortfall of £930m. Loans to MFS totalled £1.16bn, and there was only £230m of “true value” available in the collateral accounts.

It is unbecoming to say “I told you so”, but when it comes to Meta Platforms’ US$27.3bn project bond to fund its Hyperion data centre via private credit shop Blue Owl Capital (and SPV Beignet Investor) the temptation is strong. I wrote in late 2025 that Meta’s decision not to consolidate the debt on its balance sheet sits uneasily with the economic risk that investors have assumed they are taking when they bought the deal in October. And now Meta’s auditor, EY, clearly feels this same tension.

Full-year earnings from European banks – Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and UBS – showed them broadly holding market share in the markets’ business, but struggling to capitalise on the upswing in investment banking. 

The repo market is the heartbeat of bond markets. Like a real heartbeat, when all is well, there is nothing more boring. But when things go wrong … watch out.