Coronavirus

The Instituto de Crédito Oficial expects to come to market for a social bond aimed at mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the Spanish economy in the next few weeks, if a suitable window presents itself.

Brian Quintenz, one of the Republican commissioners on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has announced that he will not seek another term at the regulator.

Many feared that the drive to modernise systems within banks would take a back seat as those in bond markets raced to adapt to remote working during the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, banks appear to be galvanising their efforts to get up to date.

Finnish national airline Finnair has launched a rights issue in response to the coronavirus pandemic — the first in an expected wave of large European rescue recapitalisations.

UK discount clothing retailer Matalan said this week that it hoped to take advantage of the government’s Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) — but that the extra £50m available under the programme will have to be senior to its public bonds, requiring bondholder consent.

The Republic of Lithuania joined the ranks of top tier emerging markets issuers proving their access to bond markets in the teeth of the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, as it broke its issuance record with a €2bn dual tranche trade.

Rabobank has become the first Dutch bank to enter the credit markets in over two months, after launching a non-preferred senior bond on Wednesday. The issuer tacked on a call option, which bankers say are cheap to deliver in the market at the moment.

Fitch Ratings has lowered Italy’s credit rating one notch to BBB- on Tuesday night, making the move more than two months ahead of its scheduled review in July.

Barclays’ revenue from markets in the first quarter was its best ever, the bank said, but another large figure overshadowed this: credit provisions across the group came in at more than double the consensus estimate, on the basis of macroeconomic assumptions seen as conservative and a £300m hit from low oil prices.

Barclays saw its common equity tier one capital ratio fall 70bp amid balance sheet growth in the first quarter, but analysts suggest the bank should be able to maintain enough capital to carry on paying additional tier one coupons this year.

The Schuldschein market is expected to reopen in a matter of days, but arrangers will face a changed market and will have to adapt to the new corporate lending landscape created by the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Central Bank could take action to counter the rise in the level of Euribor at its meeting on Thursday by either cutting its deposit rate or buying commercial paper from financial institutions to ease interbank lending, according to analysts.