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GC Asia
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Europe is not wasting this crisis
The European Commission has delivered its proposal for an EU recovery fund. It may not be full debt mutualisation nor a solution to low European growth, but it is a huge step forward.
28 May 2020 -
Argentina’s awkward anecdote
Only in Argentina could a finance minister claim that default on billions of dollars of bonds constitutes merely an “anecdotal date”.
21 May 2020 -
A 'courageous' IPO
In the classic UK sitcom Yes, Minister, cunning civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby would try to deter government minister Jim Hacker from making a particular decision by calling it "courageous" — meaning it was risky. He might have given similar advice to bankers on the IPO of coffee company JDE Peet’s this week.
21 May 2020 -
AT1s: a mollycoddled market
Banks should be brave enough to take decisions that upset their additional tier one (AT1) investors.
14 May 2020 -
The pandemic payback
The coronavirus pandemic will test the complex relationship between bank loans and the fabled ancillary business supposed to make it all worthwhile. Some banks have provided heaps of extra cash for European clients to keep them alive and it has changed the shape of the loan market, with some banks ramping up market share. But will companies return the love when the time comes?
14 May 2020 -
Villain of the last crisis, hero of this one
Europe’s SMEs are in trouble. The coronavirus pandemic has zeroed revenues and threatens their very existence. They last faced a big threat in the 2008 crisis when bank lending dried up and a recession took hold. Back then, securitization took a lot of the blame as the cause, but this time it offers a route to rescue.
06 May 2020 -
Working remotely is costly in ways you can’t quantify
Capital markets have not seized up when mediated through the home office. But with remote working set to be the norm for the foreseeable future, the finance industry must be alert to less perceptible problems.
06 May 2020 -
Opportunity knocks for public sector covered bonds
Caffil’s debut Covid-19 bond issued this week has shown that the moribund public sector covered bond market can play a crucial role in financing the response to the coronavirus crisis. The deal implies that the hitherto dormant public sector programmes many issuers have set up across Europe have scope to be reactivated to provide stable long-term financing for debt-ridden regional borrowers.
30 Apr 2020 -
Pandemic? What crisis?
The coronavirus has made fantastical numbers commonplace in the corporate bond market. Everywhere one looks, results are being published that in any other time would herald the sudden collapse of companies. But you wouldn’t guess that from looking at the corporate bond market.
30 Apr 2020 -
In this pandemic, all bets are on
“Who remembers places?” ran a joke on social media as lockdowns swept the globe. The idea that something so fundamental could be forgotten so quickly applies to capital markets too. There, the joke might ask who remembers credit risk. But at a time when central banks seem keen to underwrite credit of almost every variety, maybe it doesn’t matter.
23 Apr 2020
