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Martin Taylor, an external member of the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee, on Wednesday night delivered a broadside attacking the additional tier one market as it exists today, in a speech to the Oliver Wyman Institute.
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The European Central Bank's covered bond purchase programme is lowering funding costs but its price distorting effect is slowly but surely crowding out private demand. Recent deals from BNP Paribas and BPCE attracted less than 50 investors, when usually they would have attracted closer to 100. Central bank participation in primary books has more than doubled to 40% and, as bonds tighten further in the secondary market, private investors will be encouraged to take profit and sell to the only buyer in the Street.
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Bankers working on a loan for Promsvyazbank believe the hotly anticipated deal is imminent – and that it will do more to reopen the international market to Russian borrowers than Gazprom did with its bond last week.
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Journalists sometimes have to choose between being fast and being right. The Financial Stability Board, with its Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) plans, has chosen to be fast, and a weaker financial system will be the result. -
The Bank of England's unveiling of plans to look into providing Shariah liquidity facilities for UK Islamic banks was one of the highlights at last week’s World Islamic Economic Forum in Dubai. It’s a great idea, but there’s just one problem — this should have been done ages ago.
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The Bank of England's unveiling of plans to look into providing Shariah liquidity facilities for UK Islamic banks was one of the highlights at last week’s World Islamic Economic Forum in Dubai. It’s a great idea, but there’s just one problem – this should have been done ages ago.
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There’s a distressing tendency among equity analysts to underplay investment banking, especially when it comes to once proud universal banks like Barclays and RBS. CEOs play up their retail banking credentials, but the investment banks will have the last laugh.
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The European Central Bank’s covered bond purchase programme entered a new phase this week as eurozone issuance enabled it to buy the primary market, rather than relying on secondary where supply is drying up. Its buying is good news for peripheral banks but may cause investors to desert the core.
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If you had plotted the best possible outcome for the Comprehensive Assessment of Europe’s banks, it would probably have looked a lot like what happened this week. There were some failures in the tests, though few severe ones, and a grown-up reaction by banks followed.
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By asking insurance companies how their business models are exposed to climate change, the Bank of England has made a big advance in the world’s response. Governments may drag their feet, but at last the world’s financial architecture is beginning to realise the reality of global warming.
