12 March 2010
Rabobank is set to move the bank capital market forward by pricing a 10 year senior unsecured contingent capital issue today (Friday). read more »
An innovative Eu1bn tier one hybrid from France’s BPCE this week ended a three month drought in the European bank capital market. But while investors responded positively to the deal with Eu2.5bn of orders, only the boldest banks are likely to brave continuing uncertainty over regulation, according to hybrid specialists.
The euro market saw its busiest week of issuance from financial institutions since the second week of January as Westpac New Zealand, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corporation and Commerzbank received sizeable order books for their seven year senior unsecured transactions.
Crédit Agricole and Credit Suisse are marketing a Eu750m RMBS for NIBC Bank — the firm’s first public deal since well before the credit crisis.
Just days after Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s European head of debt capital markets Amir Hoveyda resigned, Sid Prasad, the bank’s head of FIG capital markets and financing, also quit.
Russia’s Alfa Bank became the latest Russian bank to issue in dollars this week, selling its largest ever bond in a further sign that the Russian bond market is in fine form.
Standard & Poor’s is preparing a wide-ranging review of its rating criteria for financial institutions. The rating agency said it "may lead to modest adjustment" in the ratings of some banks but that there would not be a systematic change in any direction.
Lloyds TSB stormed bank into the MTN market this week with several chunky floaters and structured notes. It had been absent from the market since mid-February thanks first to a blackout period and then it updated its programme documents.
The UK Financial Services Authority has updated its stress tests for banks, requiring them to hold capital that could withstand a double-dip recession resulting in a peak to trough GDP fall of 8.1%.
UK insurer Prudential said on Monday it would accelerate its plans to list in Hong Kong, in a move that will give Asian investors a chance to participate in the rights issue that will fund its acquisition of AIA.
Turkey’s Vakifbank and Akbank have shrugged off criticism of pricing on their latest facilities, picking up plenty of commitments as they look to close them in the next two weeks.
A sharp improvement in pre-tax profits at HSBC’s global banking and markets division in 2009 was not quite enough to offset heavy asset write-downs in North America and a reversal of fair value accounts gains on its own debt.
Rabobank has taken contingent capital in a bold new direction, eschewing conversion into equity-like instruments for an automatic writedown. But without any regulatory benefit, it is not entirely clear what's in it for the Dutch bank.
by Olly Copplestone
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