LatAm Loans

Paltry pricing — and bankers' complaints that borrowers are fleecing them — have made a comeback in Europe’s loan market after a long absence. But there is still some way to go before calling the market’s full recovery. Blue chips may have it easy but for lesser borrowers it is still tough going.

Concerns that new infrastructure in the loan market is not moving fast enough are more than justified. Bank lenders need to make a concerted effort to catch up with other markets and modernise their operations.

After a dire start of the year, financial institutions are back in vogue with credit investors. From hybrid tier one to senior unguaranteed, every funding avenue has been successfully tested by issuers. However, while this has clearly been a welcome development by market participants, not all challenges have been overcome. Hélène Durand looks at what’s in store for the rest of 2009.

While the credit crisis has been the undoing of many financial institutions, it has been the making of BNP Paribas. The bank can not only boast of having the lowest CDS price of all of the major European banks but also to have been one of the names most in demand from bond investors. Hélène Durand speaks to the bank’s head of funding, Valerie Brunerie.

UK retailer Tesco has accessed as many parts of the bond market in 2009 as any corporate issuer, raising money with unsecured bonds, government guaranteed deals and a groundbreaking securitisation. Chris Dammers and Nina Flitman report.

Kookmin Bank, Korea’s biggest lender, played a key part in re-opening the international credit markets for the country’s banks, but it had to take some unorthodox measures to do so. Matthew Thomas reports.

Santander has taken an opportunistic approach to the capital markets this year, raising money with covered and senior unsecured bonds and saving money with liability management exercises but shunning the Spanish government guarantee. Molly Guinness reports.

Deutsche Bank horrified the markets by not calling its tier two debt last December and yet has achieved an average funding cost lower than government guaranteed bonds. Letting more and more call dates pass, the German bank has nevertheless built oversubscribed books at tight prices in the covered, subordinated and senior markets. Molly Guinness reports.

Dexia was not far from the eye of the storm that Lehman Brothers caused in the financial markets and the group suffered a rapid fall from grace. But a year on from its bail-out, the group’s covered bond issuers have re-established themselves in the market. Neil Day reports.