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Three UK companies have already flagged their interest in the Bank of England’s emergency commercial paper funding scheme for large businesses, announced on March 20. The big three rating agencies will help fast-track unrated investment grade issuers into the scheme, but the strict eligibility limits leave leveraged and smaller companies out in the cold.

A rush to dollars in recent days has caused dysfunctions in various corners of the financial markets. The US Federal Reserve has rushed to put out the flames, including with new measures on Monday.

Could EU member states finally come together to issue a common debt instrument? In this article, GlobalCapital takes a look at the key issues.

The Bank of England said on Friday morning that UK banks should not treat coronavirus-impacted exposures as impaired assets under IFRS 9 accounting standards, as it unveiled new guidance around the impact of the pandemic.

Central banks attacked the coronavirus threat this week, promising swathes of new money on an unprecedented scale to help fund governments’ colossal new fiscal commitments. Bond markets reacted with relief to the swathe of multi-billion programmes aimed at fending off global financial meltdown.

Wild swings in the euro/dollar basis swap, and an unreliable interest rate swap complicated bond execution in the SSA market this week. While some liquidity has returned in rates, cross currency swaps are still behaving very strangely.

International banks are at risk of depleting their capital reserves as they try to keep credit flowing to companies through the coronavirus crisis. Governments and regulators have already responded, but the sector is screaming out for more work to be done to ease the burden of complying with stringent accounting and supervisory rules, reports Tyler Davies.

The biggest investment banks are enjoying strong trading revenues from the market moves related to the coronavirus pandemic, alleviating a freeze in M&A and underwriting activity. The banks appear well-placed to deal with corporate drawdowns, although there is some debate around wider liquidity profiles.

Bankers in Paris are adjusting to a new life of lockdown following president Emmanuel Macron’s declaration of war against Covid-19 on Monday, which has led to the toughest restrictions being imposed on daily life in France since the Second World War.

European government bond spreads have tightened in response to the European Central Bank's decision on Wednesday to beef up its bond buying. Italy’s spread to Germany contracted by more than 120bp since Wednesday morning's wide but SSA borrowers are not ready to return to the market yet.

Prominent short sellers have criticised European financial regulators’ clampdown on short selling as being counterproductive. Meanwhile, US hedge fund Bridgewater Associates has been unwinding its multibillion short positions in European stocks, after price falls across indices on the continent in recent days.

European banking supervisors are looking into ways to help banks offset the impact that rising credit risks will have on their capital levels, with the industry heaping criticism on the IFRS 9 accounting standard for making the coronavirus crisis even worse than it should be.