News content

EU lenders will have to give more detail about their use of loan repayment holidays and public guarantee schemes during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new reporting guidelines published by the European Banking Authority (EBA) this week.

Capital markets players love to talk about being socially responsible. The death of George Floyd shows talk has got society nowhere. It is time for action.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is urging local officials to ease their Covid-19 lockdown measures, warning that some banks are now suffering delinquency rates in the mid-double digits on their small business loan books.

The shift to home working is going to heap pressure on office property companies, with some corners of the capital market expecting their bonds to start selling off if workers stay away as lockdowns are eased.

The Financial Conduct Authority expects that a court case determining whether UK insurers have to pay out on business interruption claims as a result of Covid-19 will be settled by the end of July.

DNB entered 2020 better capitalised than ever, and having taken the opportunity to get ahead with its regulatory funding at the end of last year, it was also better financed than ever. Even so, following the regulator's decision to delay implementation of MREL target by one year, DNB could return to the covered bond market in the latter half of 2020.

MEPs proposed a series of amendments to the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) this week, including a couple that could compel banks to stop paying additional tier one (AT1) coupons during the coronavirus pandemic.

The structured products market may have suffered dramatic blow-ups in the equity market, but investors have supported the less well publicised fixed income corner of the market.

The European Commission has delivered its proposal for an EU recovery fund. It may not be full debt mutualisation nor a solution to low European growth, but it is a huge step forward.

Private sector involvement in suspending debt servicing for the world's poorest countries to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic progressed this week, with the Institute of International Finance (IIF) publishing guidelines for such an initiative. But countries face a long and tortuous path to reach tangible relief, write Ross Lancaster and Oliver West.

The European Commission delivered its proposal for Next Generation EU on Wednesday, marking a sea change in the bloc’s relationship with the capital markets as it proposes truly shared borrowing to finance expenditure for the first time. The move could make the Commission the biggest supranational and agency borrower by some distance, Lewis McLellan reports.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has reminded issuers and bankers of rules related to inside information and wall-crossings, as it seeks to make sure standards are upheld in busy markets when participants are working from home.