Sunday 1st March 2015
NEWS TICKER: FEBRUARY 27TH 2015: The number of global weakest links increased to 154 (as of Feb. 17, 2015), with 15 additions and nine removals, according to Standard & Poor's Global Weakest Links And Default Rates: Greece's Uncertain Future Weighs On Increased Corporate Default Risk, published today on RatingsDirect. "This month, we added five Greece-based entities to the weakest links list; four 'CCC+' rated Greece-based banks and one 'B-' rated utility sector company were placed on CreditWatch with negative implications, as the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to lift the waiver on the eligibility of Greek government bonds in euro-system operations," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research Group. "The CreditWatch placements reflect increased default risk looming over some Greek institutions and broader economic pressure, because Greece recently secured a four-month extension on its bailout."

Latest News

  • Friday, 27 February 2015 UniCredit completes first BPO in Italy
    UniCredit says it has successfully completed the first Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) transaction ever carried out in Italy, for the payment of a commercial operation concluded between SPIG SpA, a producer of industrial cooling systems based in Arona, in the province of Novara, and one of its German suppliers, a UniCredit Bank AG customer. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 SEC announces SME advisory committee meeting agenda on March 4th
    The Securities and Exchange Commission says the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies will focus on ways to increase the opportunities for investors in small and emerging companies to resell their shares, a concept referred to as secondary market liquidity. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 ATS to launch liquidity and price discovery tool for the secondary bond market
    Alternative Trading System (ATS) upstart OpenBondX, says it plans to launch a liquidity and price discover protocol for the secondary bond market in the first quarter this year. The firm says it will offer unbiased access to liquidity from both non-traditional and traditional providers. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 Stephen Mitchell to manage Jupiter Global Managed Fund
    Stephen Mitchell, who joined Jupiter in February as Head of Strategy, Global Equities, is to take on the management of the Jupiter Global Managed Fund from 2 March 2015. The Fund will continue to be run as a global portfolio, but with a greater emphasis on dividends and dividend growth as a significant driver of potential return. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 ICE directors survey highlight the challenge of effective risk oversight
    NYSE Governance Services, a leading provider of corporate governance, risk, ethics and compliance services for public and privately held companies along with Spencer Stuart, a global, senior executive search firm, today released the 12th Annual What Directors Think Survey. This nationwide survey of nearly 500 directors highlighted that daily risk oversight continues to be one of the central challenges facing boards, as well as an increased focus on shareholder engagement and board composition. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 Chicago business barometer at 5½-year low
    The Chicago Business Barometer plunged 13.6 points to 45.8 in February, the lowest level since July 2009 and the first time in contraction since April 2013. The sharp fall in business activity in February came as production, new orders, order backlogs and employment all suffered double digit losses, leaving them below the 50 level which separates contraction from expansion. Read more...
  • Friday, 27 February 2015 CIGI appoints new senior fellow on international law and trade issues
    The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) says it has appointed Hugo Perezcano Díaz as Senior Fellow with the think-tank’s International Law Research Program, effective immediately. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 BCRP reduce el encaje en moneda nacional a 8% desde marzo
    El Directorio del Banco Central de Reserva del Perú (BCRP) redujo a 8% la tasa del encaje mínimo legal y la tasa de encaje en moneda nacional, medida que entrará en vigencia desde marzo de este año. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 El Tribunal Constitucional español obstaculiza la independencia catalana
    El Tribunal Constitucional (TC) en España ha anulado esta semana por unanimidad la ley de consultas que había sido aprobada por el Parlamento de Catalunya. Dos de los preceptos de la ley de consultas catalana, y que se utilizaron como amparo para la consulta soberanista del 9-N, han sido declarados inconstitucionales. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 Spain’s Constitutional Court hampers Catalonian independence
    Spain’s Constitutional Court yesterday banned a new law voted by the Catalonia Parliament in September last year. The law was used by the Catalonians to underpin a planned referendum on independence. The Constitutional Court holds that any plebiscite is solely in the jurisdiction of the state and not regional government. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 Moody's Interfax downgrades NSR of Moscow Mortgage Agency
    Moody's Interfax Rating Agency has downgraded the national scale rating (NSR) of Moscow Mortgage Agency to Aa3.ru from Aa2.ru. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 US commodity pool investment scammer receives eight year sentence
    The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today says Kevin G White of The Woodlands, Texas, who allegedly orchestrated a $7.4m commodity pool investment scam during which he misappropriated approximately $1.7m from pool participants, was sentenced to over eight years in federal prison. Earlier, on December 11th 2013, White pleaded guilty to committing mail fraud for his actions in connection with the scam. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 QE will hurt DB pension schemes, by as much as €92bn suggests S&P
    Recent economic developments in Europe are conspiring to cause deterioration in the funding condition of corporate defined-benefit (DB) pension plans, especially for those that are already materially underfunded with DB plan deficitsgreater than 10%-15%. As the European Central Bank (ECB) launches its €60bn per month asset buying program, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services says that in the absence of careful risk management DB plan deficits will become a more material negative credit factor over the next two years. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 Give us better management fees say investors in alternatives says Preqin
    Management fees need to improve, say institutional investors in alternative assets funds, according to hedge fund analytics provider Preqin. Over half of investors in each alternative asset class feel improvements in the alignment of interests between investors and fund managers can be made by focusing on management fees, says the firm. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 CBOE Holdings signs licensing agreement to list options on FTSE & Russell Indices
    CBOE Holdings Inc has entered into a licensing agreement with London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), to develop and list options based on more than two dozen FTSE and Russell indices. Read more...
  • Thursday, 26 February 2015 Pramerica fixed income signs UN Principles for Responsible Investment
    Asset management firm Pramerica Fixed Income has signed the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. Pramerica Fixed Income, among the largest global fixed income managers, is a business of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), which is headquartered in the United States. Read more...

MORE NEWS...
Key Stories from FTSE Global Markets
US Securities Lending: Defining the new business drivers
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

US Securities Lending: Defining the new business drivers

The Expert Panel

  • David Gurtz, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Director of Risk Management, Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board
  • Susan Peters, Chief Operating Officer, Scorpeo
  • Charles Rizzo, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer For The John Hancock Family Of Funds And Chairman John Hancock Funds Risk Committee
  • Craig Starble, Chief Executive Officer, eSecLending
  • Chris Valentino, Director, Sales, EquiLend
  • Robert Zekraus, Director, Prime Services, Scotiabank Global Banking & Markets
  • Francesca Carnevale, Editor, FTSE Global Markets
Read more...
Commodity price drop hammers South American currencies
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Commodity price drop hammers South American currencies

The decline in commodity prices and the rise in value of the US dollar is having a negative effect on the value of Latin American currencies. At the time of going to press the Colombian peso was at its lowest level against the US dollar in five years. The same is true for Chile, where the peso is at a six year low against the greenback following a severe drop in the price of copper. The list goes on.

Read more...
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

The rise of alternative lending in the European mid-market

The (French) euro private placement market has seen the emergence of a range of unlisted deals, attracting international borrowers. A pan-European private placement (PP) market looks to be evolving. In France in particular the euro PP market has seen a broad range of deals from international borrowers. The direct lending market-where dedicated credit funds lend directly to predominantly sponsor-owned businesses—saw more than €10bn worth of transactions last year, covering some 200 plus deals. How far can this alternative funding market grow?

Read more...
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

A slow start for RMB issues

After a banner year for offshore RMB issuance volumes in 2014, with RMB587bn worth of securities issued, a quiet start to this year has set off alarm bells in some quarters. Others say that RMB can weather a downturn in January as the bonds have evolved from a simple one-way expectation of RMB appreciation to a more mature evaluation of credit quality and asset allocation diversification during the last twelve months. New research from FTSE Group thinks that the outlook is more balanced. Who’s right? The evidence looks rather mixed.

Read more...
Can a pan-European private placement market emerge?
Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Can a pan-European private placement market emerge?

Even eight years after the blow up in the financial markets, access to alternative sources of capital for borrowers, particularly SMEs, remains strained. Much has been talked about the emergence of a shadow banking market; but that market is highly selective and is in no way ubiquitous. The European private placement market offers some potential, but it remains highly fragmented, still defined by domestic rather than pan-European issuance. Now capital markets agencies across Europe have come together to help define the operation of a pan-European capital market union; one in which the emergence of a pan-European private placement market is one stepping stone. Can it be achieved?

Read more...
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