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The European Investment Bank isn’t letting the Covid-19 pandemic divert it from its common purpose, but is focusing it more clearly than ever on the development sphere.

The European Investment Bank took a bold step when it announced in November last year that it would end funding for fossil fuel projects, alongside a slew of ambitious targets. This year has been about putting in place the roadmap for its transformation

The last six months have been unprecedented times for the global capital markets, and securitization has not been spared the volatility. In both the US and Europe, structured finance sectors have had to navigate worsening economic conditions, widening spreads and a deeply uncertain outlook for the rest of 2020 and beyond. With the help of central bank and government support measures, the worst of the crisis may have been avoided, but securitization may also have a role to play in the coming recovery. GlobalCapital spoke with Ocorian’s Sonal Patel and Sinead McIntosh on the outlook for capital markets, the state of securitization and the prospects for 2021.

It has been a year of tumult in the capital markets but you would not know that from examining the results of the European Investment Bank’s funding programme in 2020 and comparing it to 2019.

The pandemic has been a time of immense difficulty for financial markets globally. The period of stress in the corporate sector has led to intense stress on economies large and small and the recovery following the 2020 coronavirus crisis will be long. But will also be a window of opportunity for market players. This is particularly true of the structured finance market, which may have a significant role to play in helping to clean up after a period of unprecedented distress. GlobalCapital and Vistra gathered a roundtable of market experts to discuss the state of securitization sectors in Europe, Asia and the US and the role of the product helping the market get back on its feet following months of pandemic stress.

With countries beginning to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic, Navita Yadav, Vistra’s Global Head of Capital Markets, assesses the pandemic’s impact and examines what might lie ahead from a capital market perspective.

When the European Parliament voted to approve the EU Taxonomy Regulation on June 18 — the final step in the Regulation’s legislative journey to providing the foundation for sustainable finance in Europe — more than just a glass was raised at the European Investment Bank. The issuer took the opportunity to issue a new Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) and announce the extension of CABs to two new project areas that substantially contribute to climate change mitigation.

The period since March has been a turbulent time for financial markets, and the CLO sector in Europe dealt with a complex set of disruptions when the pandemic arrived this spring. From sudden and acute stress at the corporate level to an unprecedented shift in working conditions, CLO players in Europe experienced more uncertainty that hasn’t been seen since the last crisis. Yet, the market has adapted, and while the shape and size of deals may be different, CLOs in Europe are pushing ahead. BNY Mellon and GlobalCapital gathered a variety of market experts to discuss the present state and future prospects of the European CLO market.

GlobalCapital speaks with Ocorian's James Maitland.

OTP Bank Treasury recently announced that it would restructure its business and change its name, continuing its international money and capital market operations as OTP Global Markets. GlobalCapital talked to managing director Attila Bánfi about the opportunities and challenges that the banking group’s international presence brings.

China Southern Asset Management is in a strong position to capture opportunities in the Mainland’s rapidly growing equity fund market. The rising competition in this segment is only set to push it harder.

As Europe starts to emerge from its coronavirus lockdown, economic restrictions are being eased and banks are returning to funding in the public markets. But the environment is markedly different from that which went before.

For well over a decade, the cornerstone of the European Investment Bank’s sustainability funding policy has been the conviction that the financial services industry has a pivotal role to play in spearheading the battle against climate change. As the EU’s climate bank, it has also consistently recognised its responsibility for developing best practice, which in turn helps promote enhanced environmental and social standards across the global financial community.

When investors are presented with a new financial instrument, their instinct is generally to focus on pricing, relative value and liquidity. This is a natural response, especially in a low yield environment in which every basis point counts.

By Tom Ahern. The European Securitization Regulation became applicable from January 1, 2019. It has a number of goals, including consolidating and recasting existing European regulations, establishing a framework for Simple, Transparent and Standardised securitization and introducing new transparency and disclosure requirements.

One year after the launch of the Clean Oceans Initiative, the European Investment Bank wants to use its success in tackling plastic pollution as a springboard to safeguard the wider blue economy.

With its push to embrace its role as the European Union’s climate bank, the European Investment Bank is set to play a key part in the alliance of multilateral development banks committed to fight climate change.

The European Investment Bank has set out a strategy for lending that will support the EU’s goal of decarbonising the economy by financing investments that cut emissions, combat climate change and support alternatives to fossil fuels.

The securitization market has come a long way since the financial crisis. In a low interest rate world, capital markets have been an attractive source of funds for companies, who can cut their cost of funds compared to issuing corporate debt while still offering yield hungry bond buyers relatively high returns.

Has change been driven entirely by regulatory compliance or have market forces also played a role?

Since the issuance of a pioneering Climate Awareness Bond (CAB) by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2007, the global Green Bond market has expanded at an impressive pace, with total issuance passing the $500bn mark in the third quarter of 2018.

Technological innovation is dramatically disrupting society at every level, and financial services are no different. It is impossible to predict how technology will evolve, but the most successful banks will be the ones that adapt to become technology companies themselves, says Michael F. Spitz, CEO of Main Incubator, the research and development unit of Commerzbank.

A compelling recent example of the EIB’s role as a “crowding-in” bank is its support for the Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund (SOF), the first close of which was announced in September.

If that sounds like an easy question to answer, consider the hypothetical case of a lender backing a scheme to retrain adults as computer programmers, or accountants in a city like Katowice, the capital of the Polish region of Silesia

There are close to 5 million motorbikes and scooters in the Vietnamese capital city, Hanoi. To put this figure into perspective, it means there is more than one motorbike or scooter for every two residents of the city, which has a population of about 7.8 million

Structured receivables finance is a distinct form of financing that enables companies to unlock capital tied up on their balance sheet relating to larger ticket receivables or contracts payable by their customers over time. Clients that use this structure view it as a key tool for management of liquidity and working capital, given such receivables are often less well suited to traditional forms of receivables financing, such as factoring or ABCP conduit funding