Flirting with financial crisis

We looked this week into whether the US's decision to postpone the imposition of punishing tariffs by 90 days averted a financial crisis, or merely postponed it.

The action in the US Treasury market was not good this week as investors and traders appeared to pile into cash rather than assets. Stock markets were red but the US government bond market caught no safe haven bid and sold off too.

The peril abated with the tariff postponement on Wednesday but there were signs of a brewing crisis in the run-up to that decision. We ask whether markets will be better prepared in July if the US goes ahead with its trade policy.

We also delve into a decision by the UK regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, to disallow non-UK covered bonds from counting as high quality liquid assets for UK banks. We explore the ramifications for UK lenders and the covered bond market.