Coronavirus

The Single Resolution Board has said it will offer banks some flexibility around their regulatory reporting deadlines, easing the operational strain on the sector during the coronavirus pandemic. But European banks are looking more clarity on certain elements related to the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has made a series of concessions for traders and other investment intermediaries tackling the coronavirus to operate from overseas.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has proposed creating a $5bn crisis recovery facility in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

EM bond bankers were feeling relieved after a better day for global markets on Thursday, as they said some of the asset class’s best issuers were lining up deals hoping to clinch much-needed funding.

Investment banking revenue in March was lower than normal as the coronavirus pandemic sapped risk appetite — but it was far from a total wipeout.

As the initial government-imposed deadline for Argentina’s mammoth debt restructuring sailed by without a concrete offer to creditors having been put on the table, some analysts are worried that a hard default may be inevitable.

Armies of wonks have spent the last 10 years dreaming up a panoply of bank capital tools, from additional tier one capital to MREL, to make sure “too big to fail” can never happen again. Next time, they claimed, private investors’ capital would be burnt in an orderly process, saving taxpayers from bailing out banks.

Bond market participants in Latin America are gradually accepting that Zoom video calls will become a permanent feature of their job. However, in this particularly travel-intensive segment of capital markets, when it comes to selling a product, neither issuers nor bankers appear willing to cut down visits to clients in a region where personal trust is arguably more important than anywhere else.

Those pleading for a shared EU-level fiscal response to the economic damage of the coronavirus outbreak were thrown a bone on Thursday when Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, promised a €100bn unemployment fund backed by €25bn from EU member states. But her silence on the prospect of further debt mutualisation spoke volumes to market participants.

T-Mobile became the latest US company to cash in on the extraordinary boom in dollar bond issuance as it priced an increased $19bn deal on Thursday that attracted $72bn of demand.

Daimler has signed a €12bn one year loan with four banks, to strengthen its cash position for the pandemic’s stormier days. It joins a host of borrowers agreeing new credit lines with relationship banks, rather than drawing down existing facilities. Bankers say the borrowers hope to enter the bond markets down the line.

UK companies damaged by the coronavirus lockdown are rushing to the equity market to raise capital, hoping to survive the worst economic disruption most of them have ever faced. Banks are having to stretch deal structures to get the crucial financings done, but this will not work in all cases.