SSA

Other News

  • France blocks Taxonomy law at last moment

    France blocks Taxonomy law at last moment

    On Wednesday, just as the European Commission launched its European Green Deal to move Europe to a carbon-neutral and environmentally friendly future, France led a revolt against the Taxonomy which was the centrepiece of the EC's Sustainable Finance Action Plan.

    11 Dec 2019

  • Blackrock cools on government bonds as EM finds favour

    BlackRock is bearish on the prospects of the government bond market in 2020, thanks to the exhaustion of monetary policy as a means of generating growth. Instead, the world’s largest asset manager is looking to move deeper into riskier assets such as emerging markets where there is still room for further easing.

    11 Dec 2019
SSA News Archive

Go to GlobalCapital's SSA data pages for the latest information on priced deals, borrower funding progress, league tables and upcoming deals.

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AWARDs

  • 2019 bond deals of the year: public sector borrowers

    2019 proved more fruitful for supranational, sovereign and agency borrowers than was expected in 2018 — in part thanks to a rejuvenation of the ECB’s asset purchase programme and a wholesale return to dovish monetary policies. GlobalCapital’s SSA team used its editorial judgment, with inspiration from GC’s world famous bond comments, to pick the top trades of the year. We strove to find deals that were not just the biggest, but that set pricing markers, were innovative and brave, or made an impression in other ways. GC presents the winners here. Congratulations to the issuers and banks involved.

SUPRANATIONALS & AGENCIES

Sub-Sovereigns

  • Climate and digitisation to dominate SSA’s 2020

    An unusual note of optimism defines the attitude of Europe’s public sector issuers as they approach 2020. While many other markets are beset by fears of a slowdown in global growth, trade wars, and Brexit, SSA borrowers are confident in their borrowing strategies and loyal investor bases. Despite a change of face in the ECB’s top job, rates are still set to remain low for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, investors are having to grit their teeth to stomach the scanty yields on offer for euro SSA assets. Although SSAs are offering little in the way of yield, their place as pioneers of the evolving SRI market always ensures lively debate. In this roundtable, held in early November, market participants on both the buyside and the sell side favoured a more holistic assessment of issuers’ ESG profiles, rather than relying on labelled assets, but whether or not the ECB should take a role in promoting the SRI market through “green QE” divided the group.

    13 Dec 2019

Comment

  • Serious about green? Lagarde must ditch dirty debt

    Christine Lagarde, the new European Central Bank president, has planted a flag, placing climate change at the centre of the ECB’s priorities. That is bold — and laudable — but if the ECB is to have a meaningful impact, green QE is not enough. The ECB must divest its holdings of unsustainable assets.

    12 Dec 2019

  • In defence of Denmark's green idea

    Denmark’s debt officials have a highly original plan to issue green bonds in which the green element can be stripped off and traded separately. It’s going to put many a green nose out of joint. That’s no bad thing: the market needs to re-examine its claims to efficacy and virtue.

    10 Dec 2019