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Spanish regulators are likely to introduce a wide range of essential revisions to the Cédulas law once the final version of the European Commission’s covered bond directive has been published. If carefully calibrated, the changes can be credit neutral. The biggest challenge is their implementation.
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The sell-off in Italy’s equity and debt markets in the lead-up to the creation of a new Italian government shows that investors are nervy about the euroscepticism of its new law makers, but Europe also has a part to play in ensuring that markets don't end up in straits such as the sovereign debt crisis of 2009-12. -
After a year of European elections failing to have much effect on markets, Italy has reminded everyone of the need to know their Mattarellas from their Di Maios. But the country stands apart when it comes to political risk.
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Want to understand Brexit and the future of UK financial regulation? Don’t look to government — the Treasury Select Committee has more power than ever before.
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The European Commission’s target for having Banking Union in place by 2019 is looking increasingly like an impossible dream.
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Big bank M&A is a fun parlour game. If one tires of discussing whether one hundred duck-sized horses could overpower one horse-sized duck, or which West Ham line-up 1980-present was strongest (2000-02 - Ed) it's always worth speculating about who ought to be buying who and why.
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Sometimes, investors get hit by political events that come out of nowhere. Other times, they walk straight into an oncoming freight train, even though it's blowing its horn at top volume.
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Do we marvel enough at the philosophical and metaphysical nature of the banking industry?
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A survey of companies’ sensitivity to human rights casts big luxury goods companies like LVMH, Hermès and Prada in a bad light. Will investor pressure make them smarten up — or does their indifference suggest investors’ power is limited?
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If the principles-based European covered bond directive is implemented in its current draft form not a lot will change — but that may be just as well.
