LatAm Loans

A haven of financial stability or next in the firing line of the banking crisis? That is the question Nordic loans bankers are asking now that foreign lenders are retreating and liquidity in the region starts to dry up.

Loan documentation on new transactions is being changed to make it easier for banks in a syndicate to trigger market disruption clauses (MDCs) as problems surrounding pricing continue to plague the market. Triggering the clause allows lenders to drop screen-based Libor as the base rate and instead use a multi-bank reference rate.

The Loan Market Association has launched a new recommended form for intercreditor agreements that takes into account some of the problems that complex capital structures create in restructuring situations.

Marcia Vorona, who was until November head of Latin American loan syndications at Royal Bank of Scotland, has joined Santander as an executive director in its Latin American structured finance group. She reports to Marcelo Castro.

Not every borrower will want or be able to replicate Roche’s record-breaking bond issues of the last two weeks, or even follow its bonds-before-loan strategy. But the deals show at the very least that global debt markets remain strong enough to support even the very largest financing needs of companies.