Free content

Capital markets have not seized up when mediated through the home office. But with remote working set to be the norm for the foreseeable future, the finance industry must be alert to less perceptible problems.

John Davidson is CEO of the Options Clearing Corporation, the equity derivatives clearing house. GlobalCapital caught up with him to discuss how clearing has held up in the Covid-19 crisis — during which equity markets endured huge volatility — and how he is planning for the return from lockdown.

Martin McKinney, senior manager of medium-term funding at Santander UK, speaks to GlobalCapital about the impact the UK’s lockdown on the bank’s balance sheet, central bank liquidity, and the bank’s changing mix of regulatory and pure funding.

The Indian equity capital market needs all the help it can get amid disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The securities regulator has already loosened some rules, but it needs to go further and relax guidelines around one of issuers’ most preferred fundraising avenues — the qualified institutional placement (QIP).

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (BVG) touched off a legal bombshell on Tuesday morning. It left the ECB in an impossible position: it can accept the court's verdict or ignore it, but either decision will undermine its efforts to stabilise Europe's capital markets.

The economic devastation has made an absolute mockery of predicting corporate earnings and therefore, equity valuation. Companies have given up on providing forward guidance leaving equity investors in the strange position of having to pick stocks without the earnings estimates that they have come to depend upon. Undoubtedly, this makes their work harder but it will also mean they must add to their repertoire of techniques for analysing companies. Many will flounder but a few are bound to shine.

A strong and growing deposit base, an active private placement market and sizeable proportion of prefunding has put the Pfandbrief banks in a strong liquidity position, the chief executive officer of the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (VDP), Jens Tolckmitt, told GlobalCapital in an interview on Tuesday covering a wide range of other topics such as real estate values, the mortgage lending value and Basel III’s output floor.

Chinese bond issuers can feel a sense of relief that the country is starting to end its Covid-19-related lockdowns. But although the coronavirus might become less of a problem for these issuers over the rest of the year, an old enemy will again cause problems. US president Donald Trump is once again rattling his sabre.

In this round-up, China says it will hold its most high-profile political meeting in May after a two-month delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, both the official and Caixin manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slide in April, and the successor to failed Baoshang Bank launches.

Lloyds Bank has got most of its covered bond and senior funding out of the way already this year — ideal, given the threat of the coronavirus pandemic to both bond markets and the wider economy. But the bank has also been busy optimising its capital stack, which should support its lending just when it is most needed.

There is a huge amount of information to take in at the best of times in the capital markets. During a crisis, it can be overwhelming. So, each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web.

Caffil’s debut Covid-19 bond issued this week has shown that the moribund public sector covered bond market can play a crucial role in financing the response to the coronavirus crisis. The deal implies that the hitherto dormant public sector programmes many issuers have set up across Europe have scope to be reactivated to provide stable long-term financing for debt-ridden regional borrowers.