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Asian buyers driving callable SSA market have resurfaced in public benchmark deals
Public sector issuers have become more flexible when executing cross-currency interest rate swaps
Politically motivated prosecutions endanger democracy
Solutions exist but political will is necessary
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Until you look closely, stress testing sounds great. With the abject failures of the 2011 stress tests fresh in their minds (Dexia has been bailed out twice since passing the test with a 10% capital ratio), the European Banking Authority stress testing teams, and those of national regulators, will pull out all the stops to make the 2014 tests credible.
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The UK government will unequivocally honour its guarantee on a project bond for a new green energy power plant in Scotland, regardless of how that country votes in its independence referendum. But that means UK taxpayers could be left underwriting a bond that only benefits a foreign country if Scotland votes yes, while it still isn’t clear how an independent Scotland would honour its share of the UK’s debt obligations.
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Scepticism and confusion abound when the ECB’s ABS purchase programme is under discussion. Is it supposed to create money, to channel credit to peripheral SMEs, or to reinvigorate the private sector? Maybe all that and more.
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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has decided that if you don’t understand what you are buying, you had better have a lot of money. This week the City watchdog banned the sale of contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) to retail investors for one year, arguing that issuing banks have an “unusually broad discretion” to halt the payment of coupons on the bonds.
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The massed public debt officials of the European Union have endorsed a plea from the Belgian Debt Office to keep their primary dealers safe from MiFID II, a mammoth regulatory overhaul of wholesale and retail financial markets.
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The UK authorities are proud world leaders in the persecution of bank management, and with some justification. But despite the best efforts of politicians and commenters in The Guardian, there is a conspicuous lack of bankers behind bars. Even Fred Goodwin, rightly blamed for the collapse of RBS, remains at liberty, though stripped of his knighthood.