Posts tagged 'Sovereign Debt'

Pari passu’s peso problem?

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| May 23 19:13 | Comment |

UPDATE (Friday) – Judge Griesa said he won’t comment on Citibank’s request, at least until the Second Circuit’s final ruling on objections to the form of his order:

Citibank asserts that it needs clarification as to its obligations in the event that the Court of Appeals affirms the District Court’s November 21,2012 rulings. The District Court declines to make any further comment on matters now before the Court of Appeals. What further ruling or action is required from the District Court will obviously depend on the holding from the Court of Appeals. No more can be said at this time.

Now back to Thursday’s original post for the stakes involved…

____________

Hat-tip to Bloomberg — it looks like we have a new entrant in the pari passu saga.

Citibank.

Technically it’s Citibank’s Argentine branch. They’ve made a slightly curious request for ‘clarification’ of Judge Griesa’s order last November for Argentina to pay bond holdouts alongside other, restructured creditors. (Payments just to the latter could be seized, and ultimately launch Argentina into a sovereign default… just to catch you up.) Read more

Everlasting credit, the long view

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

Learn more

Subscribe to Paul's posts
| May 21 14:52 | Comment |

From historical chart specialists Global Financial Data — the yield on perpetual Consols versus the stock of UK sovereign debt…all the way back to 1742. Click to view… Read more

“Something to ponder while hoping for the best”: Cyprus and the IMF

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| May 15 15:49 | Comment |

Quite a lot to ponder really. Members of the IMF’s executive board were set to meet on Wednesday to discuss whether to approve lending to Cyprus, more or less behind closed doors.

But maybe not so much this time. It looks like Stockwatch in Cyprus has obtained a copy of the members’ comments on the Cypriot bailout — a rather high-level internal document to find its way to the public… and it makes for fascinating reading. Read more

Finland’s got a secret… no longer

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| May 14 20:55 | Comment |

Abuse of official secrecy. It’s been one of the more corrosive but — by definition — shadier aspects of the eurozone crisis.

It can take the form of a report on money-laundering in Cyprus. Or the opaque process by which Troika debt sustainability analyses are drawn up. Emergency liquidity assistance to banks, even. Read more

What price, kilt-edged risk?

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| May 13 17:06 | Comment |

Alternatively, what price to taxpayers for political pride.

Spotted in HM Treasury’s collection of responses to the idea of letting Scotland issue its own bonds later this decade — a… wide range of guesses about how they might be priced: Read more

If you tolerate this, more holdout lawsuits will be next

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 29 10:00 | Comment |

Well, this was fun while it lasted. Now what did it mean?

Click to enlarge the document capping a weird week in the pari passu saga:

It’s an order from the Second Circuit on Thursday, denying an unusual request filed on Monday by the Italian retail investors who count themselves among Argentina’s holdouts.

Although looking back at it, was the unusual or just ahead of the curve? Read more

Club Med yields, in historical context

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

Learn more

Subscribe to Paul's posts
| Apr 23 16:33 | Comment |

Nothing like taking the long view – such as this snapshot of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian 10 year paper, over 150 years. Click to enlarge

 Read more

So this is no longer news, right?

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

Learn more

Subscribe to Paul's posts
| Apr 23 09:30 | Comment |

In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio increased from 87.3% at the end of 2011 to 90.6% at the end of 2012, and in the EU27 from 82.5% to 85.3%.

Full eurostat stats here. Read more

Argentina and an offer easily refused

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 20 16:14 | Comment |

With its latest submission in this Court, the Republic of Argentina continues its long and consistent pattern of defaulting on its contractual obligations, defying the laws of the United States (which its contracts expressly invoked), and showing contempt for the courts to whose jurisdiction it unreservedly submitted. The government of Argentina plainly believes the rule of law does not apply to it…

Guess that’s a no, then. Read more

Was that promise of ratable payment wrong? Should Italy not have done that?

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 18 21:05 | Comment |

File under: Argentina’s battle with its holdouts and the effects thereof on pari passu clauses in sovereign bond contracts elsewhere in the world — with a special crossover to the changing legal status of official lenders in the eurozone crisis.

Spot the difference edition. Read more

Cristina and the Supremes

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 15 18:17 | Comment |

Fresh off the US Supreme Court’s order list on Monday:

 Read more

The eurozone’s second sovereign restructuring?

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 10 22:53 | Comment |

Please note the question-mark.

Our colleagues at FT Brussels Blog got their hands on the draft debt sustainability analysis for the Cyprus bailout and bail-in — click for the full doc: Read more

Cyprus, where the vicious circle stopped

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 05 19:10 | Comment |

In continental Europe, we are witnessing the rather extreme outcome that results from having the provision of liquidity divorced from an ability to regulate banks…

– UBS analysts John Paul Crutchley and Alastair Ryan, 2009 Read more

Les holdouts misérables

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 03 09:34 | Comment |

As the pari passu saga in New York rattles towards its end… (or is it?)

The contest of wills and/or highly-paid lawyers between Elliott and Argentina goes on elsewhere, of course. Read more

Argentina’s gonna make him an offer he can refuse, part two

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 01 21:03 | Comment |

Update (4 April) – The Second Circuit has ordered NML to respond to the Argentine proposal by April 22. Which is as expected but more time on the clock for the Republic.

______________________ Read more

Argentina’s gonna make him an offer he can refuse, part one

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Apr 01 21:02 | Comment |

In theory, there was no offer. “This is a proposal to judges, not an offer to vultures,” Argentina’s finance minister tweeted at the weekend.

For their part, the three judges of the US Second Circuit had ordered Argentina to tell them “how and when it proposes to make current those debt obligations on the original bonds that have gone unpaid over the last 11 years” (emphasis ours). It’s a last act in the battle that Argentina has been losing to stop restructured debt payments being linked to its defaulted bonds under the pari passu clause.

In practice, the 22-page letter that the government sent to the Second Circuit on Friday — containing “options” for holdouts to take payments “equitably and ratably” with bondholders who swallowed its 2010 debt restructuring, by getting restructured bonds in place of the original debt — pretty much was an offer.

And — it looks like — not one the judges can accept. Meanwhile, the market has panicked like wildebeest. Read more

Meanwhile, in Greece…

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 27 16:10 | Comment |

Dromeus Capital. The name might ring a bell. It’s the fund which did its homework on underpriced Greek assets last year, making a killing.

Pretty striking, then, that they’ve now gone cautious on Greece. Read more

Argentina en banc? Mais non

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 26 18:04 | Comment |

Guess it pretty much comes down to the alternative ‘formula’ for paying its holdouts which Argentina will be making to the Second Circuit at the end of this week, then.

The court on Thursday denied the government’s separate request to have its pari passu case reheard ‘en banc‘ — that being when a full court hears your case, instead of a panel of judges (which is usual): Read more

Scratch one stupid idea [Updated]

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 25 06:02 | Comment |

Monday morning’s Eurogroup statement on Cyprus. You’ll want the details in the Annex.

 Read more

The stupid idea, and the system

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 18 04:40 | Comment |

Famous last words and all, but it is hard to see the fear flowing from Cyprus to the average depositor in a Spanish or Italian bank. Not in the short term. As for Lehman II, well, come off it.

After all, that’s probably partly why this inequitable tax on small depositors across Cypriot banks could be put on the Eurogroup negotiating table on Friday. The systemic danger is absent. Read more

Beyond financial repression

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

Learn more

Subscribe to Paul's posts
| Mar 17 18:59 | Comment |

A couple of years back, when Carmen Reinhart and Belen Sbrancia updated the concept whereby governments might deal with a problematic mountain of debt by confiscating the savings of their subjects, the discussion was all about the subtle, sleight of hand solutions that might be employed.

Artificially cheap rates of interest might be forced on the embattled sovereign’s debt, local banks might be obliged to buy mis-priced government paper, exchange controls may be erected, and so on. Ordinary people, it seemed, could be financially repressed without realising they were in fact the victims.

There was no discussion back then of outright expropriation or a “tax”, as insured (and uninsured) depositors at Cypriot banks are now being forced to bear. Read more

A stupid idea whose time had come

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 16 18:37 | Comment |

A “one-off” often isn’t. Calling something after “stability” isn’t very stable. Saying that something is not a precedent usually makes it one.

Presenting the Cyprus bailout’s “upfront one-off stability levy” for depositors in Cypriot banks: Read more

And the beat goes on, pari passu and sovereign restructuring edition

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 11 16:52 | Comment |

They’ve become interesting side-players in the saga principally starring Argentina — so it’s probably worth noting the latest from these two Caribbean sovereigns…

Belize has closed its restructuring with 86 per cent approval by its creditors: Read more

La brutta figura

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 08 17:40 | Comment |

Italy has finally fallen out of the ‘A’ ratings and into the Bs, at Fitch Ratings.

Here’s the explanation for cutting it to BBB+, outlook negative: Read more

Pari passu, the cross-sovereign contamination

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 06 18:16 | Comment |

Some excerpts from a lawsuit filed by the Export-Import Bank of China (Taipei) against Grenada in a United States district court on March 4, 2013…

If you have been following the pari passu saga on ratable payment of sovereign debt — they tell their own story. (Click to enlarge all images.) Read more

Raising the RUFO in Argentine bonds

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 06 17:02 | Comment |

In case you didn’t fancy ploughing through our 3,000+ words on NML v Argentina last week at the Second Circuit…

Barclays’ analysts have boiled down the next turning point in the pari passu saga into two paragraphs, in their March 5 note (irresistibly titled ‘Cram-down or sanctity of contract? Is there a way out?’): Read more

“Repent, Argentina!” said the ticktock judges (part two)

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 04 23:13 | Comment |

Continuing our take on the arguments at last week’s big hearing in NML v Argentina…

Last time we looked at what Argentina said; this part will cover its restructured bondholders; Bank of New York, their trustee; and the holdouts.

Though Argentina’s still hogging the limelight. Read more

A vote on toxicity

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

Learn more

Subscribe to Paul's posts
| Mar 04 16:42 | Comment |

Click above to see the survey/competition being run by a German Green party MEP, Sven Giegold. Read more

“Repent, Argentina!” said the ticktock judges (part one)

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 02 10:14 | Comment |

Headline via the Harlan Ellison short story. “Timewise, it was jangle…”

What a week for the pari passu saga, and the fight to show that an order for Argentina to pay holdouts ‘ratably’ alongside its restructured sovereign debt is both over-reaching, and an unfair threat to third-party bondholders and banks.

Yep, FT Alphaville also went along to the oral argument before three judges of the Second Circuit in NML v Argentina on Wednesday, along with about 300 other people. A pretty crazy affair in itself, the hearing has now led to a follow-up order from the court, telling Argentina to give “precise terms” explaining how it would pay holdouts, and how it would obey any decision of the Second Circuit. Read more

Give us a formula, Argentina

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Mar 01 16:46 | Comment |

We haven’t written up our full take on Wednesday’s (nuts) oral argument in NML v Argentina (sorry), though you should read this, just out from the Second Circuit on Friday…

The court has ordered Argentina to specify “precise terms” of how it would wish to pay holdouts, differently to the current injunction to pay them ‘ratably’ in full: Read more

BackOlder entries