Every few years the bond market comes up with a new title for lead banks. While international deals used to feature bookrunners and joint lead managers, now global co-ordinators sit at the top of the tree. But while this escalation of titles and seniority may help those at the top stand out, it also gives those lower down the pecking order an excuse for knowing next to nothing about their deals.
At least, some bankers act like it does.
I had a palpable example from China this week, when one banker confidently told me about a recent Panda bond that came at the maximum fundraising size for the issuer. But when I spoke to her again later and told her the issuer had just announced a much-smaller deal than she had first claimed, she was surprisingly relaxed about it.
“Ah well, we were only a junior underwriter,” she said, before innocently asking how big the deal ended up being.
Is this a result of bloated mandates stripping responsibility — and in some cases, even knowledge — from banks who work on a deal? Or was our banker friend just having a bad day?
I hope it was the latter. The idea that a banker should be perfectly comfortable not even knowing the size of a deal they officially worked on does not bode well for the development of China’s bond market.