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Deutsche Bank’s head of Swiss DCM, Maroan Maizar, recommended this week that the Swiss authorities ban retail investors from buying Swiss contingent convertible bonds, ensuring that only the “best” investors have access to such instruments.
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Social responsibility means accountability, and accountability requires transparency. Even where socially responsible issuers show what they have funded, investors need comparisons to prove they have done some good.
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Greece’s euro-denominated future hangs in the balance. Greater integration and less sovereignty is needed to save the European project, but the ideological gap between Greece and Germany shows it will be nearly impossible to achieve. -
Investors in bank senior unsecured bonds have sailed through most of the crisis believing they are safe from haircuts if the bank fails. They’ve been wrong before, and as time goes on, it should be ever more clear that they face real credit risk.
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When former Rabobank analyst Olly Burrows’ wife and one of their four children came home early to find a burglar trashing their upstairs bedroom, it was not funny.
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Covered bonds and RMBS share important similarities which both the European Central Bank and Bank of England acknowledged last year in a discussion paper. As the two asset classes evolve, their vastly different regulatory treatment should become more difficult to justify.
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Burning plants sends CO2 into the atmosphere – any 10 year old knows that. Yet thousands of bigwigs have convinced themselves otherwise. Don’t let the bond market make the same mistake.
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The European Central Bank owns 15% of eligible benchmark covered bonds since its third purchase programme (CBPP3) began. It could end up owning 40%, which could permanently disrupt the market.
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Euro benchmarks from the Gulf are rare but this is the right time for that to change.
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Financial innovation deserves scepticism, especially unregulated investments offering retail investors supposed juicy returns. But while P2P lending merits scrutiny, it is both less useful, and less dangerous, than banking.
