SABMiller's need to finance its $12.3bn takeover of Foster's saw it issue a $7bn multi-tranche Yankee. The result defied even the most optimistic of expectations, with high demand seeing the brewer come close to refinancing its bridging loan of $8bn in one fell swoop.
In response to the suggestion – put forward by bankers and central bankers in the UK – that a temporary cut in capital adequacy requirements would stimulate new lending and economic growth, The Banker has simulated how a 1% lower Basel requirement might affect various major world economies.
With traditional revenue streams taking a hit as a result of new regulations, retail banks in the US face a predicament. Should they risk losing customers by increasing their fees to cover costs, or is there another strategy that will appease shareholders and customers alike?
The US's Commodity Futures Trading Commission's new rules were passed by a slim majority of three to two and met with much chagrin as those opposing the changes threatened legal action. But with its position limit levels set wide, how will the reforms actually affect investment banks?
Revenues may be down but market share is up for Bank of America Merrill Lynch's corporate and investment banking division. This is giving its global co-head, Christian Meissner, cause for optimism going into 2012, despite the tough markets in Europe and Asia.
Junk bonds have suffered badly since the start of June, with investors being quick to sell off what is one of the riskiest fixed-income asset classes. But bankers point to the market’s underlying strengths and insist it will only get bigger in the long term.
On the one-year anniversary of Dodd-Frank, much may have been achieved, but almost as many rule-making deadlines have been missed. More importantly, there are growing industry concerns that lack of agreement about how to apply the extraterritorial reach of US regulation is a problem that just will not go away.
The caution in the markets following the tsunami in Japan and unrest in north Africa provided an unpromising backdrop to French company Sanofi Aventis's $20bn takeover of US biotech firm Genzyme. However, the deal passed off as a resounding success.
Some US community banks managed themselves conservatively and stuck to their knitting while others expanded too quickly on the back of the real-estate boom. While the former are prospering, the problems and failures among the latter are adding up.
The US is in trouble. Its infrastructure is in dire need of repair but the heavily indebted country cannot afford to pay for it. All the more surprising then that the overtures of private – and in many cases foreign – capital are being met with resistance.