Romania’s central bank bought bonds on the secondary market this week, triggering a rally in the country’s government debt and prompting the cabinet to sell more debt than planned at domestic auctions, Bloomberg News reported. The bank purchased about 150m lei ($36 million) of local-currency government bonds from commercial lenders on March 8 and 9 in an attempt to rein in a spike in yields since mid-February. It was active for the first time since August, buying notes due July 2025 and January 2028, among others, the people said.
Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Read more
Britain’s economy shrank by less than feared in January when the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown, but trade with the European Union was hammered as new post-Brexit rules kicked in, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product was 2.9% lower than in December, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a contraction of 4.9% and government bond prices fell as investors took the data as a sign that the Bank of England was less likely to pump more stimulus into the economy.
Read more
Close scrutiny of UK financial firms’ European Union outposts will continue indefinitely, the bloc’s securities watchdog said, as regulators begin a round of new checks on how they are operating, Reuters reported. Hundreds of trading and investment firms from the City of London have set up shop in the EU to avoid disrupting business with the bloc by relocating staff and assets. The costly investment was vindicated by an UK-EU trade deal that left UK financial services largely cut off from the continent after Britain left the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31.
Norwegian Air submitted its final restructuring offer to creditors on Thursday in what the budget airline said was a major step in its plan to slash debt and reduce its fleet to survive the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. If approved by enough creditors and Ireland’s High Court, the so-called scheme of arrangement will enable Norwegian to raise new capital and emerge from bankruptcy protection in Ireland and Norway. “This is an important milestone in the process of securing Norwegian’s future,” Chief Executive Jacob Schram said.
Read more
Credit Suisse faces questions from regulators and insurers as it grapples with the fallout from the collapse of $10 billion worth of funds linked to British financial services firm Greensill Capital, Reuters reported. The Swiss bank has hired external firms to help with their inquiries in the wake of Greensill Capital’s insolvency. Greensill’s insolvency has sent ramifications through the world of trade finance, threatening companies which relied on its platform to receive faster payment for the goods they had supplied to larger entities.
The administration costs of collapsed mini-bond provider London Capital & Finance (LCF) are expected to total £7.7m by next January, P2P Finance News reported. The latest progress report from joint administrators Smith & Williamson revealed that fees have already reached £5.6m. By 29 January 2022, the end of the third year of the administration, costs are expected to hit £7.7m, according to the document filed with Companies House.
Read more
Inside the prime minister’s office in the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten, the walls of paradise were closing in. In the former Dutch colony renowned for fish stews and rum cocktails on Great Bay Beach, the coronavirus pandemic had ground tourism to a halt, sparking a financial crisis akin to the aftermath of a hurricane. By December, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said, public coffers were so low that she didn’t know how she could continue to cover the government payroll, the Washington Post reported. She needed a financial lifeline.
Read more
Greensill Capital’s talks to sell parts of its operating business to Athene Holding Ltd. were derailed after one of the firm’s key technology partners received funding that allows it to finance Greensill’s most creditworthy clients directly, Bloomberg News reported. Taulia, a financial technology company that had worked closely with Greensill, landed a $6 billion liquidity facility from banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Taulia’s clients had an immediate need for liquidity because of Greensill’s insolvency.
U.K. metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is negotiating a standstill agreement with Greensill Capital to give his companies breathing space over payments on billions of dollars worth of debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Greensill is among Mr. Gupta’s biggest lenders, but filed for insolvency protection on Monday. Its troubles have prompted Mr. Gupta to fly abroad to seek new sources of financing, while governments and workers in several countries are seeking clarity on the fallout on his network of steel, aluminum and energy companies.
Read more
Former executives at Davy who were at the heart of a bond-trading scandal that has rattled the stockbroking firm – and are still shareholders in it – are close to agreeing to allowing the remaining board members to put it up for sale, the Irish Times reported. It is expected that Davy, where former National Treasury Management Agency chief executive John Corrigan is chairman and former AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne stepped in as interim chief executive last weekend, will confirm before the weekend that the business is being put on the market.
Read more