There’s no doubt that IMN and Afme’s annual Barcelona shindig is not only the best way to debate the major issues facing the European securitization market, but also the best place to catch up with familiar faces.
In the spirit of being an active social member of the ABS community, one GlobalCapital journalist (who asked to be quoted strictly on background) accepted one bank’s kind invite to dinner in the El Born district on Monday. We shall keep you guessing as to which syndicate banker ended up chucking his pork chop in the wine, but safe to say the event did not finish at the civilised time advertised on the Outlook invite, and our esteemed colleague was left regretting the fact that he’d been up since 3am the same day to catch a cab to Stansted.
Or maybe the Ryanair flight was a wise decision; we hope that those caught up in major delays on British Airways have made it in time for a refreshing sip of cava this evening…
If Monday’s festivities were too much for you, let’s just hope you’ve picked up a copy of GlobalCapital’s securitization special report -- produced in print especially for this week’s gathering and available at our conference stand – as some bedtime reading material. It kicks off with a fascinating in-depth piece by our very own George Smith on the European market’s next stage of growth. A huge opportunity, no doubt, but also a massive challenge.
We’ll forgive you if you’ve not yet made your way through every page of the report; Tuesday was packed with some great panels after all. Be sure to check out some of our conference reporting highlights in the stories on our Global ABS Content Hub, here.
May you live the Barcelona evening to the full, but not to the extent that you’re not ready for Jonathan Hill’s 9.30am keynote on Wednesday, where he told us he’d call for a “proper discussion about risk”.