Free content

Blythe Masters will receive the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Global Derivatives Awards ceremony on September 18, 2014, in London. Masters, who was chosen for the award by senior buyside and sellside officials, will be honoured for her role in the development of the derivatives markets in a number of positions at JP Morgan, as well as for her contribution to strengthening the financial markets during her time as chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The Global Derivatives Awards honour the people, companies and deals that made an impact on the global derivatives market during the last 12 months globally. The full list of award categories and nominees can be accessed at www.globalcapital.com/derivatives/global-derivatives-awards.

Dubai should push on with its plan to create a central Shariah board. Although the emirate has made good progress in striving to become the self-styled “centre for the Islamic economy”, the time is ripe for a breakthrough that would create a lasting legacy.

Naysayers claimed that the remarkable run for the eurozone periphery since the turn of the year could be over after a sell-off in the sovereigns’ debt a couple of weeks ago. But with the European Parliamentary elections out of the way and pro-EU parties just about topping the bill, there is plenty of room for the rally to go on.

Equity analysts, Barclays shareholders, regulators and even journalists have all had a pop at fixed income trading of late. Apparently, it’s too expensive to run and doesn’t make enough money. Too many people, too much capital (leverage or RWAs to taste) and too many banks involved. So it is refreshing to hear the case for staying the course in the business.

The leveraged loan market has hosted some atypically big M&A deals over the last few months, including most recently €7.5bn for DE Master Blenders. But these attention-grabbing deals cannot hide the continued paucity of deals in the mid-market.

Will payment-in-kind debt ever lose the power to shock and bewilder? After a short respite, one of high yield’s most controversial creations has returned to the market. Investors are scooping it up like gluttons, but they should be wary of agreeing to ever more aggressive terms.

Following Narendra Modi’s landslide victory to become India’s next prime minister two weeks ago, the country’s benchmark Sensex and Nifty indexes have both soared to record highs, leading to plenty of chatter that a wave of new issuance may be unleashed. The talk mainly revolves around IPOs and share placements, but the conditions are also ripe for convertible bonds to make their long awaited comeback.

You have to pity the poor jetsetting bankers of today's world. When it comes to travel, they have it so much worse than I ever did.

Growing support for fringe parties on the left and right of the political spectrum in this week’s European Parliament elections should be cause for concern for all mainstream politicians. But while investor nervousness over the polling is the most plausible explanation for a sell-off in the eurozone periphery over the past few trading days, it is still too early to call an end to the spectacular rally in periphery sovereign debt this year.

The covered bond market is in danger of losing a swathe of real money investors who have been put off by low returns and declining issuance. But a rich new stream of demand from bank investors looking to fill their liquidity buffers could come online. These buyers, though should be more interested in looking at the nascent floating rate format and not the fixed rate market that until now has prevailed.

International bond markets are at odds with local financial and economic commentary on Venezuela, which remains pessimistic. Investors are happily making a quick buck, but last week’s PDVSA bond shows just how far Venezuela is from real economic pragmatism.

Chinese corporates have been out in force in bond markets as new issue volumes break one record after another. But with a slowdown in domestic economic growth and rising interest rates looming, borrowers must not overlook the dangers to solvency of overzealous leveraging.