Coronavirus

The European Central Bank threw the kitchen sink at the bond market this week with its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). Borrowers are assessing their funding programmes, which will rise in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But they are in no hurry to sell new issues, with investor appetite minimal in the secondary market.

“There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.” So said Vladimir Lenin, although the founder of Soviet Russia probably didn’t write this with the capital markets in mind.

Wild swings in the euro/dollar basis swap, and an unreliable interest rate swap complicated bond execution in the SSA market this week. While some liquidity has returned in rates, cross currency swaps are still behaving very strangely.

International banks are at risk of depleting their capital reserves as they try to keep credit flowing to companies through the coronavirus crisis. Governments and regulators have already responded, but the sector is screaming out for more work to be done to ease the burden of complying with stringent accounting and supervisory rules, reports Tyler Davies.

The biggest investment banks are enjoying strong trading revenues from the market moves related to the coronavirus pandemic, alleviating a freeze in M&A and underwriting activity. The banks appear well-placed to deal with corporate drawdowns, although there is some debate around wider liquidity profiles.

Exchanges around the world have closed their open outcry pits as the threat of Covid-19 has shunted trading over to electronic formats.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is to start quantitative easing for the first time, it said on Thursday, while earlier this week the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) slashed rates and the New Zealand Treasury set out plans to increase its bond market borrowing.

Equity bankers are working with corporates on potential rights issues to shore-up balance sheets given the huge economic disruption caused by the coronavirus in Europe. But with volatility sky-high, even optimistic bankers are wary of bringing deals to market, while other ECM deals like block trades, convertibles and IPOs are no-go areas for the foreseeable future.

After an extraordinary Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Thursday, the Bank of England voted to drop the base rate by an additional 15bp to bring it to a new low of 0.1%. Alongside this cut, the central bank has announced it will up its holdings of government and corporate debt by £200bn. Initial signs in the bond makrets were positive.

The State of North Rhine Westphalia (Land NRW) had to pay a large new issue premium on Thursday as it brought the first SSA deal of a volatile week.

Bankers in Paris are adjusting to a new life of lockdown following president Emmanuel Macron’s declaration of war against Covid-19 on Monday, which has led to the toughest restrictions being imposed on daily life in France since the Second World War.

European governments are scrambling to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their populations and their economies. Although much of the intervention has been through fiscal policy and debt markets, countries are investigating taking companies back into public ownership to prop them up.