This Week

• Ex-JP Morgan Bill Winters returns with Renshaw Bay

  Bill Winters, former co-chief executive of JP Morgan Chase & Co's investment bank, on Thursday said he has started a new asset management company backed by listed investment vehicles RIT Capital Partners and Reinet Investments.

• Dimon: Let “big dumb banks’ fail

  Jaime Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, is well-known for speaking bluntly and seems to have surpassed himself in a TV interview where he said that the "big dumb banks" should be allowed to go under. The job of the resolution authorities is to ensure the consequences are kept to a minimum, he said.

• Bankers see sunbelt deals ahead

  While the likes of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain are traditional sources of winter sun for investment bankers, the region dubbed “Club Med” is also likely to provide a surge of equity capital markets volumes this year.

• US Justice Department urges stiffer penalties for insider trading

  The Justice Department is urging stiffer punishment for insider trading suspects, saying the complexity of new schemes like the recent cases of alleged wrongdoing at "expert networking" firms show a need for longer prison sentences.

• HCA pricing multi-billion dollar IPO next month

  Hospital operator HCA Holdings plans to go public in the second week of March with a multi-billion dollar sale of its stock, the latest in a string of large private equity-backed companies to IPO.

• Allstate sues JP Morgan over $700m in mortgage securities

  US insurer Allstate sued JP Morgan Chase over more than $700m (€516m) in residential mortgage-backed securities - the latest to allege that a bank misled investors on the quality of mortgages underlying securities.

• SocGen investment bank returns to Q4 profit

  Société Générale’s corporate and investment banking unit returned to profit in the fourth quarter, as advisory and fixed income revenues strengthened and a recovery in the value of toxic assets boosted the bottom line.

• City salaries on the rise

  Nearly two thirds of managers at firms in the City of London expect to increase wages for their staff this year, as employers continue to sidestep new bonus restrictions by hiking base salaries.

• Goldman Sachs winding down prop-trading desk

  Goldman Sachs is winding down its global macro proprietary trading desk, according to a person familiar with the matter.

• Renaissance appoint new deputy CEO in Russia

  Renaissance Group, the emerging markets investment firm, has appointed Alexander Merzlenko as its new deputy chief executive in Russia. Merzlenko will be responsible for strengthening key relationships with the Russian public and private sectors. He will continue in his current role as head of Russian investment banking and financing.

• Trian in $7bn dollar bid to buy Family Dollar

  Trian Group, the investment firm led by Nelson Peltz, has offered to buy Family Dollar Stores, the US discount retailer, in a deal worth up to $7.6bn. The offer of $55 to $60 per share, in cash, represents at least a 25% premium to the closing share price on February 15. News of the bid sent shares soaring by 26% in after-hours trading. Family Dollar has said it will review the offer in due course.

• Jefferies adds to European trading

  Investment bank Jefferies has appointed Zubin Ramdarshan as head of European volatility trading and a managing director in its global equity derivatives group. His appointment is part of Jefferies' efforts to expand its European equities trading business. Ramdarshan joins in London, from Macquarie Bank,. He also previously held roles at Bear Stearns and Deutsche Bank.

• Rio Tinto increases Riversdale stake to 15.97%

  Rio Tinto's has increased its stake in Riversdale Mining to 15.97%, up from 14.97% on January 11, when it initiated a $3.9bn takeover bid for all ordinary shares in the firm. Rio Tinto recently extended the takeover by 14 days to March 4 after Brazil's Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional raised its stake in Riversdale to 19.9%, just below the threshold for a compulsory takeover offer.

• Commodities boomed, but not for Wall St

  When commodity prices surged last year, one segment of the market missed out on the action: big Wall Street banks.

• Delaware judge says Barclays 'manipulated' Del Monte sale

  Barclays Capital, in its pursuit of fees, secretly "manipulated" the sale of Del Monte Foods to private equity firms, a Delaware Chancery Court judge said in a ruling late Monday.

• BarCap's equities drive softens revenue decline

  Barclays’ drive to strengthen the equities team at its investment banking division has finally provided a meaningful contribution to the UK bank’s overall profits, helping to stem industry-wide declines across fixed income, currencies and commodities.

• Deals to come: what’s in the tea leaves?

  If predicting the next big merger, acquisition or initial public offering was easy we would all start up event-driven hedge funds and watch the cash flood in. Sadly, it rarely works out like that. Company executives change their minds, markets fluctuate, the macroeconomic climate shifts and deals that looked like dead certs six months ago fall by the wayside. That hasn’t stopped our colleagues at Dow Jones Investment Banker from bravely sticking their neck out and giving it a go.

• Canada's Clement says will review proposed TMX/LSE merger

  Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said yesterday he will review the proposed merger of London Stock Exchange and TMX Group under federal legislation, and he has to be satisfied that it's of "net benefit" to Canada to approve the deal.

• Credit Suisse issue still leaves Coco's future uncertain

  Credit Suisse may have pulled off a sale of a decent slab of contingent convertible bonds to strategic investors in the Middle East, but the deal says very little about the coco bonds' eventual acceptability among a broader group of investors.

• BofAML moves prime broking head to Singapore

  Bank of America Merrill Lynch has moved James Fallon, director of financing sales at its prime broking arm, to Singapore from Hong Kong to boost business in the country, Thomson Reuters reported. Fallon joined BofAML in 2009 from Tremont Capital, having previously spent 10 years at Morgan Stanley in New York and Hong Kong.

• SGCIB names new global markets heads

  Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking has promoted Dan Fields, previously global head of trading, and Sofiène Haj Taieb, previously global head of the cross-asset solutions, to deputy heads of the global markets division. Both will be based in Paris reporting to Christophe Mianné, head of global markets, and will continue to supervise trading and cross-asset solutions. Richard Quessette, previously deputy global head of the cross-asset solutions business in charge of trading activities, and Arnaud Sarfati, previously co-global head of financial engineering, are appointed as co-global heads of the cross-asset solutions business.

• Citi hires North American FIG MD

  Citigroup has hired Thomas Woodley Heath III as managing director of its North American financial institution group, Bloomberg reported. Heath will report to David Head and Peter Babej, the co-heads of the bank's FIG team. He previously worked at UBS and JP Morgan Chase.

• Lloyds hires commodity derivatives director

  Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets has hired Andy Hartree as director, commodity derivatives in client structuring, Thomson Reuters reported. Hartree, who joins from BNP Paribas, will oversee the creation of commodity focused solutions to mitigate clients' commodity risk exposures.

• ‘Toxic’ US mortgage securities boost bank and hedge fund profits

  Investment banks and hedge funds are once again making money from a sector that was defunct only 18 months ago: US mortgage-backed securities, the loan products that spread the credit crunch throughout the world.

• Nomura hit by FIG departures

  The global co-head of the financial institutions group at Nomura has quit after less than 18 months with the Japanese bank. He is the fifth high-profile FIG banker to have left the firm in the past year.

• Petra investors vent fury over high fees

  Investors are angry with mining group Petra Diamonds, listed on London’s junior Aim market, for paying its advisers a 5.5% fee for a $325m share placing last month said to have attracted $1.3bn worth of demand.

• RBS takes ‘two-step’ approach to bonuses

  Senior Royal Bank of Scotland bankers and traders could have to wait just three months to get their hands on a third of their deferred stock, according to market sources.

• Paul Donofrio plots course for Europe and Asia

  Paul Donofrio used to teach US flight officers how to fly. Now a large part of his role is teaching corporate and investment bankers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch the equally challenging balancing act of how to work together.

• Panmure Gordon hires corporate broking associate

  Panmure Gordon, a British corporate and institutional stockbroker and investment bank, has hired Charlie Leigh-Pemberton as a corporate broking associate at the firm effective March 14, City AM reported. Most recently he worked at Finsbury PR where he was an adviser to a range of FTSE 250 clients. Before that, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

• UBS's IB co-head in Japan resigns

  UBS's co-head of investment banking in Japan, Tomonori Ito, will leave his post in March to become professor at Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University, Bloomberg reported. In his new role, Ito will work in the university's international corporate strategy department.

• Evolution establishes special situations team

  UK stockbroker Evolution Securities has put together a four-strong special situations team to provide research, sales and execution as clients look to trade around and profit from an expected surge in mergers and acquisitions this year.

Last Week

• For UK banks, a calamity is born

  UK bank regulators are launching a new type of "stress test" that forces banks to consider unlikely but potentially disastrous scenarios like a flu pandemic or disruptions to the country's food-supply chain.

• Bailout bond heralds ‘back-door’ fiscal unity

  While politicians and central bankers continue to debate the merits of European sovereign bonds, so-called E-bonds, many appear not to have noticed that one has – to all intents and purposes – already been launched.

• Kengeter digested: Banking culture has to change

  Carsten Kengeter, the chief executive of investment banking at UBS, last night gave a light-hearted talk at the London School of Economics during which he touched on his own career in finance and discussed the challenges banks face in the post-crisis world.

• US exchange chiefs stay calm amid merger frenzy

  Senior executives at some of the biggest exchanges in the US have given their initial reactions to the two mergers in their industry announced this week, and have played down the potential impact they will have on competition.

• Exchange mega-merger will spark battle of brands

  When two well-known names in any industry merge there is often a fierce debate about what to do with their respective brands. The proposed tie-up between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse is likely to be no different, but while Deutsche Börse will own the majority share of the new group, it is NYSE's brand that carries far more weight.

• Hiring and salaries start to bite at Credit Suisse

  Compensation costs at Credit Suisse’s investment bank last year fell just 7% while revenues dropped 21% and profits halved, as increased base salaries, higher pay deferred from previous years, and hiring of 1,300 people took their toll.

• Independent advisers get OFT backing

  Amid the furore over the Office of Fair Trading’s decision not to refer the subject of rights issue fees to the Competition Commission, the regulator’s implicit backing of independent advisers was easy to miss.

• Barnier reaffirms regulatory road map

  The European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services has again urged Europe to lead by example and not to let its financial industry return to the days of "crazy behaviour and insane risks".

• BNY Mellon hires VP & senior director

  BNY Mellon has hired Robert Glaser as vice-president and senior director in its Nevada office, Thomson Reuters reported. Glaser previously worked at City National Bank of Las Vegas as senior vice-president and manager of private banking services statewide.

• BNY Mellon named trustee for Petrobras $6bn bond

  BNY Mellon Corporate Trust has been appointed trustee, paying agent, registrar and transfer agent for Brazilian energy company Petroleo Brasileiro’s $6bn bond issue, according to a statement.

• Q&A; with Eric Heaton: Deutsche Bank's head of FIG Americas

  This week the US Treasury launched the sale of its warrants in Wintrust Financial Corp, which it acquired under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, allowing the country’s government to almost break even on its financial crisis investments.

• DLP Piper hires London-based partner

  Law firm DLP Piper has hired Jonathan Lisle as partner in its London office. Lisle joins from CMS Cameron McKenna, a European legal and tax services provider, where he was a partner specialising in mergers and acquisitions and company takeovers. He also co-founded the firm's healthcare group.

• Danske planning Dkr20bn rights issue

  Danish bank Danske Bank, which today reported a net profit of Dkr3.7bn (€492m) for 2010, is planning a Dkr20bn rights issue, to take place in the first half of this year, according to a statement.

• Norton Rose names Hubbard as real estate partner

  Law firm Norton Rose has named Duncan Hubbard as a real estate partner in its London banking practice, City AM reported. Hubbard, who is a property finance specialist, joins from Nabarro where he was a partner.

• Samsonite to meet banks on Hong Kong IPO

  Luggage maker Samsonite will meet with investment banks next week in preparation for a planned initial offer in Hong Kong, which is worth up to $1bn, sources told Thomson Reuters. Samsonite, owned by private equity firm CVC and Royal Bank of Scotland, restructured its debt last year and is the latest European firm to plan a listing in Hong Kong, the report said.

• Citi to expand in Qatar

  US bank Citigroup will expand its operations in Qatar, Alberto Verme, Citigroup's chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa told Thomson Reuters. He said: "When we highlight growth areas in the world, the Middle East is an area where you will see more coming from Citi."

• Questions persist over M&A; rebound

  After a handful of big-ticket deals, some punchy January numbers and a string of predictably bullish analyst notes, the temptation is to buy into the hype and declare that mergers and acquisitions are poised to make their long-awaited comeback. But before uncorking the champagne it is worth bearing in mind that for every indicator pointing to a big jump in dealflow, there are half a dozen negative signs that suggest we are facing another barren stretch in 2011.

• Osborne reveals Project Merlin details

  The Big Four UK banks will have to reduce total bonus payments and disclose the pay of their five highest-paid executives, under the terms of Project Merlin unveiled by Chancellor George Osborne today.

• UBS hires Miami-based financial adviser

  UBS has named Iris Sanguinetti as an executive director and senior financial adviser in its Miami office, Bloomberg reported. In her new role, she will take charge of the firm's business development for the Central American and Caribbean markets. Sanguinetti joins from Northern Trust where she worked for 16 years most recently as senior vice president and lead business development manager for Central and South America.

• Citi taps Deutsche for latest hire

  Citigroup has hired David Bugge as a managing director for European leveraged finance in London, Bloomberg reported. Bugge, who joins from Deutsche Bank, will report to Paul Simpkin, head of European leveraged finance.

• Niche Group names non-executive chairman

  Niche Group, an investment company, has named Nigel Little as non-executive chairman effective immediately, replacing Christopher Stainforth, City AM reported. Little was previously at broker Canaccord Capital where he was vice-chairman and executive president of its UK and European operations.

• Barclays Corporate adds to cash management team

  Barclays Corporate has added three people to its cash management team. Ricardo Soto joins as head of international liquidity management; Joerg Pinkernell joins as global head of financial institution product management; and Ravindra Madduri will head the firm's global solutions advisory function for corporate cash management.

• KPMG hires Hong Kong debt advisory head

  KPMG has hired Richard Dawson as head of debt advisory based in Hong Kong. Dawson will build a team to grow the firm's debt advisory business in China and Hong Kong. He previously worked at ABN AMRO and most recently Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was latterly head of corporate and structured debt capital markets in Asia-Pacific.

• Fed moves to label 'systemically important' non-bank firms

  The Federal Reserve unveiled a rule defining two crucial terms that US regulators will use to determine which financial firms, other than banks, are so risky they warrant tougher scrutiny and regulation.

• NYSE and Börse up ante in exchange M&A; gambits

  NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse are in advanced discussions over a merger following years of failed talks which fell apart over big differences in market capitalisations.

• Citigroup turns the page on its crisis

  In late November 2008 Citigroup was days away from collapse. But a little more than two years, $45bn of US taxpayers’ cash, and $30bn of losses later, the US banking giant is back on its feet and looking to make up for lost time and lost ground, particularly in its securities and investment banking business.

• NYSE Euronext revenues reach tipping point

  NYSE Euronext's derivatives and technology units were responsible for over half of the group's revenues for the first time last year, in a sign of the diminishing importance of cash equities, whose contribution fell below 50% for the first time.

• UBS eyes painful cost decisions

  UBS's securities unit may have some painful decisions to make following a costly build-up of personnel in 2010 if revenue doesn't pick up, the Swiss bank's financial chief, John Cryan, told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.

• Ackermann remark on women stirs ire

  Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann has come under heavy criticism in Germany for joking that the inclusion of more women on the bank's all-male executive board would make it "more colourful and prettier too."

• JP Morgan to accept gold as repo collateral

  JP Morgan Chase said it will accept physical gold as collateral against securities lending and repurchase obligations, a move that reinforces the precious metal's role as an alternative currency.

• RBC Capital Markets hires three directors

  RBC Capital Markets has hired three directors to its global equities platform in Europe. Matthew Penton joins from Nomura as a director covering the industrial sector; Daniele Calabrese, who previously worked at Royal Bank of Scotland, joins as a director and sales trader covering Italian accounts; and Hugh Kingsmill Moore, who previously worked at Nomura Code, joins as a director covering renewables and utilities.

• FDIC puts forth proposal to hold back half of bonuses

  The largest US financial firms continue to feel the squeeze from the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law as regulators yesterday moved forward with two new rules, both of which single out large firms for tougher treatment.

• Spain stands behind savings banks to stave off crisis

  Spain’s move to stand behind its ailing savings banks has staved off a full-blown financial crisis and saved the eurozone’s third largest deficit country from an immediate further downgrade of its sovereign debt.

• BGC Partners hires executive MD

  BGC Partners has hired Louis Scotto as an executive managing director in New York. Scotto previously worked at Tullett Prebon Americas where he was chief executive and group chief operating officer until 2009. He will work closely with Mark Webster, president and chief executive of BCG Americas.

• A £9m bonus for Barclays's CEO

  Barclays chief executive Robert Diamond could receive a 2010 bonus worth as much as £9m, according to a person close to the matter, a development that would fuel the still-potent political furor over banker payouts in the UK.

• UBS cuts 2010 bonus pool to $4.5bn

  UBS cut the size of its bonus pool to Sfr4.3bn ($4.5bn) for the full year 2010 from Sfr4.8bn a year earlier, Swiss weekly Sonntag reports.

• Buyout firms plan return of ‘recaps’

  Private equity firms are taking advantage of improved conditions in the debt markets to increase leverage on the companies they own and boost their returns through so-called dividend recapitalisations. But their return could prove controversial.