-
A proposed change to the Pfandbrief law introducing a soft bullet maturity is designed to harmonise Germany’s covered bond regime with the rest of Europe’s, as envisaged under the EU’s Covered Bond Directive. However, it could highlight the vast differences in how soft bullet covered bonds are repaid following extension triggers. -
Despite the Eurozone covered bond market’s huge size, its inherent liquidity is dwarfed by much smaller sectors outside the trading block — effectively meaning ‘the market’ is slowly but surely becoming impotent.
-
The coronavirus crisis will continue to lead to divergence in economic fortunes, and that will play out in European capital markets as well.
-
Policymakers should be careful about rushing into action over signs that bank profitability is collapsing.
-
A top-level reshuffle suggests that Barclays chief executive Jes Staley is not going anywhere, but raises fresh questions about whether the bank’s top-five ambitions are achievable, writes David Rothnie.
-
The ECB is mulling the idea of green Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations to boost green lending. It's a noble aim — but it should work with the policies it has first, if it is serious about environmental impact.
-
Domestic bank consolidation has returned to the top of the agenda, but for financial institutions bankers, unlocking the most lucrative relationships requires years of coverage and an ability to look beyond the quick fix of M&A, writes David Rothnie.
-
Ireland won kudos for the swift economic recovery that followed the sovereign debt crisis, but with a considerable portion of residential mortgage loans overdue or restructured, its housing market was in a terrible state even before the impact of Covid lockdowns, let alone the peril a disorderly Brexit may bring.
-
The coronavirus pandemic has sparked an unprecedented wave of sovereign borrowing. Much of the paper has, unsurprisingly, ended up on the balance sheets of domestic banks. This has, equally unsurprisingly, prompted a fresh round of worry about the strengthening of the sovereign-bank nexus.
-
The European Central Bank (ECB) would gain more autonomy under new proposals on how to improve bank capital rules.
