We were due to hold our annual Bond Market Dinner in London in May, at which the Awards were to be announced. This dinner has had to be cancelled, because of the UK’s coronavirus lockdown. Instead, we will be revealing the winners of our Awards in September, in a special digital showcase that will be distributed across GlobalCapital's various digital channels.
As many of you may know, the GlobalCapital Bond Awards are decided by a market poll, which usually begins in March and ends in early April each year. In it, we ask market participants to vote on which organisations and individuals they think have performed best across bond market sectors and industries.
We believe that, given what has happened in the world this year, and the huge impact the coronavirus crisis has had on our capital markets in February, March, April and May (and no doubt the coming months), we should start this process again, so that our 2020 Awards reflect the enormity of what has happened in our markets in recent months. To have the Awards just reflect, as originally intended, market participants’ performance in the year to March — a moment in the early stages of the present crisis — would seem wrong. Indeed, we believe sticking to that timeframe would impact the credibility of our 2020 Awards.
Therefore, we are relaunching our 2020 poll today, and will be closing it on June 30, so that we can reveal the results in September in our special digital showcase. The period to which the Awards refer will be March 2019 to June 2020. Performance during that period is what will be commended. This will give you an opportunity to highlight the outstanding achievements of this particularly stressful market period, while they are still fresh in the mind — as well as the achievements of the past year.
Many of you voted in the poll in March. We thank you for doing so. Your time has not been wasted. You will be able to access the votes you put in then, and re-edit them, through an individual link which we will send you. If you still feel the same market players deserve the Awards, that is fine. But if you want to change any of your votes, to take into account what has happened in the past few months, you can. We will proactively check with each voter and ask them to check their original votes and reconfirm them.
In addition, we have also added a small number of extra categories, specifically to commend the unusual actions market participants have taken during the present crisis. In each of the four sections of the poll (public sector, financial institution, corporate and emerging market bonds) there will be two Awards:
• Best Bank for Funding Advice and Support During Covid-19 Pandemic
• Most Impressive Issuer Funding Strategy During Covid-19 Pandemic
And in the supranational, sovereign and agency section only, there will be two further Awards:
• Best Arranger of Covid-19 Bonds
• Best Issuer of Covid-19 Bonds
The Bond Poll is open: you can vote at https://surveys.globalcapital.com/s3/GCBondAwards2020
This article has more detail about the Awards including a list of the categories:
https://www.globalcapital.com/article/b1kf7pqt3rb06g/globalcapital-bond-awards-2020-the-poll-is-open
Over the next 10 days we will be contacting all those who have already voted to send them their links to check and re-edit their original votes, as well as to vote in the new categories.
These are extraordinary times for our primary bond markets. Here at GlobalCapital we’ve been determined to reflect these extraordinary times, analyse their impact and help participants decide where markets are going next. We hope that our Bond Awards, although coming a bit later this year, will be a part of that reflection, help reveal the changes to our markets and point to where they are going.
Toby Fildes
Managing editor
