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☆ Uncertain 2024 makes US companies refinance debt sooner, not later
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Doubts that debt issuance conditions will be as strong in 2024 as they are now, with markets still divided on the direction of interest rates and the economy, have also driven the interest in doing deals now. Credit spreads are underpricing recession risk, said Nate Thooft, senior portfolio manager for Manulife Investment Management. Even if companies waited for rate cuts in 2024, declines in all-in funding costs may not necessarily follow, as credit spreads could then widen, said Amol Dhargalkar, managing partner at Chatham Financial. But Natalie Trevithick, head of investment grade credit strategy at Payden & Rygel, said economic data was too strong for cuts. Some $770 billion of investment-grade rated bonds mature in 2024 and over $900 billion in both 2025 and 2026, according to data by Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

Persons: Joshua Roberts, Maureen O'Connor, Edward Marrinan, Nate Thooft, Amol Dhargalkar, Natalie Trevithick, Morgan Stanley, Steven Oh, Matt Tracy, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Davide Barbuscia, Barbara Lewis Organizations: Federal Reserve, REUTERS, ICE, BMO Capital Markets, Investment, Informa Global, Treasury, Federal, Nikko Securities America, Manulife Investment Management, Chatham Financial, Deutsche Bank, PineBridge Investments, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Wells, U.S

These deals help banks meet capital requirements more efficiently, allowing them to keep lucrative businesses that would otherwise become unprofitable. Investors in these deals include lightly-regulated entities like hedge funds, shifting risk to the shadow banking sector. Credit risk transfer is another tool for them to pursue after the Fed’s clarification on what is allowed, said Cory Wishengrad, head of fixed income at Guggenheim Securities. That means Merchants sold the riskiest tranche of the loan portfolio, maximizing the capital relief it could get on it. Whether U.S. regulators will allow such insurance deals to qualify for capital relief is still untested, Staudinger said.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, Jill Cetina, Jon, Claude Zucconi, Zucconi, Michael Barr, Barr, Banks, Missy Dolski, Sam Graziano, Graziano, Cory Wishengrad, Jed Miller, Taft, Morgan Stanley's, Morgan, Deborah Staudinger, Hogan Lovells, Staudinger, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Paritosh Bansal, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Blackstone Group, JPMorgan Chase, Merchants Bank of Indiana, US Bancorp, Investors, JPMorgan, Merchants Bank, Federal Reserve, Varde Partners, Financial, Guggenheim Securities, U.S . Bank, Fed, Reuters, Merchants, Thomson Locations: U.S, Wickersham, Europe, Indiana

☆ Exclusive: Bayer holds call with bond investors after raft of bad news
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Shankar Ramakrishnan | Thomson Reuters | Shankar Ramakrishnan Has Nearly Years Of Financial Journalism Experience In Writing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The bad news prompted some bond investors to question whether Bayer should sweeten the terms of the deal or outright pull it, one of the sources said. The drug-to-pesticides group priced the investment grade bond on Thursday last week, with the deal closing on Tuesday. Bayer priced bonds with maturities between three to 30 years. It was the 10th largest investment grade bond deal by an industrial company this year and attracted more than $22 billion in orders, according to Informa Global Markets. The events were "not enough to trigger a material adverse change clause in bond documents for investors to ask to be paid back," said CreditSights' Brady.

Persons: Wolfgang Rattay, Bayer, Andrew Brady, CreditSights, JP Morgan, Wells, Brady, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Ludwig Burger, Mike Erman, Paritosh Bansal, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Bayer AG, REUTERS, Bayer, Nomura Holdings, Informa Global Markets, Citigroup, Nikko Securities America, RIC, Thomson Locations: Leverkusen, Germany, Seattle

Sustainability-linked loans (SLL), which were first used in 2017, offer slightly cheaper borrowing, typically around 2.5-10 basis points less, if companies meet goals such as cutting their carbon emissions or improving board diversity. These let banks strip the sustainability-linked label from the loans if targets are no longer deemed appropriate. The banks' tougher standards are discouraging some borrowers from using SLLs entirely, bankers and lawyers told Reuters. The Engie spokesman said the utility would not agree to linking an event of default to sustainability targets. "We have stated our willingness to walk away when sustainability targets were too soft," said Brittany Agostino, vice president in the environmental, social and governance group at Los Angeles-based Ares.

Persons: Toby Melville, Banks, Constance Chalchat, Pascale Forde Maurice, Elliot Beard, Simmons, Beard, I've, David Milligan, Norton Rose Fulbright, Gemma Lawrence, Pardew, Brittany Agostino, Fredrik Altmann, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Isla Binnie, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Simon Jessop, Alexander Smith Organizations: FCA, Financial, Authority, REUTERS, LONDON, BNP, Corporate, Institutional Banking, Reuters, JPMorgan, Ford Motors, SLLs, CIB's, European, Sustainable Investment Banking, Simmons, Norton Rose, Market Association, BMW, Porsche, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, North America, Asia, Los Angeles, New York

☆ Liquidity gridlock worsens in US commercial real estate sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Shankar Ramakrishnan | Thomson Reuters | Shankar Ramakrishnan Has Nearly Years Of Financial Journalism Experience In Writing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

And those workouts are becoming mathematically untenable even for private lenders. Borrowing costs for the CRE market have risen more than income, a situation prompted by the steepest jump in interest rates in decades. NO REAL OPTIONRising caution among private lenders will worsen the paucity of liquidity for property owners who have no real exit option. Some private lenders faced the risk of ending up paring their portfolios that were expensive to manage, he added. But the firm's head of commercial real estate economics Thomas LaSalvia said probability of a contagion effect was low.

Persons: Mike Comparato, Jeff Holzmann, Razmig Boladian, Claudia Faust, Alex Horn, Horn, Jay Hiemenz, Thomas LaSalvia, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Anna Driver Organizations: Realty Trust, RREAF Holdings, Rubicon Point Partners, Hawkeye Partners, Thomson Locations: Franklin, Texas

But they are going only as far as the safest bets in the junk category, bonds rated BB and B. Junk bond spreads, the additional interest rate investors demand over safe Treasury bonds, tightened sharply. The spreads of those rated BB and B, or the higher rungs of junk, had tightened 47-52 basis points last week, according to Informa Global Markets data. Four junk bond issuers – Bombardier (BBDb.TO), Venture Global LNG, Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete and InfraBuild Australia - announced bond offerings on Monday. The spotty access to bond markets does not bode well for poorly rated companies.

Persons: Rick Wilking, ”, Edward Marrinan, Peter Knapp, Winnie Cisar, bode, Morgan Stanley, Moody's, Manuel Hayes, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Paritosh Bansal, Andrea Ricci Organizations: REUTERS, Federal, Nikko Securities Americas, Investors, JPMorgan, Informa, CCC, Bombardier, Venture Global LNG, “, London, Insight Investment, Barclays, Thomson Locations: Westminster , Colorado, Smyrna, Australia

☆ Analysis: Three years after DirectBooks, US bond market still phoning it in
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Shankar Ramakrishnan | Thomson Reuters | Shankar Ramakrishnan Has Nearly Years Of Financial Journalism Experience In Writing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

There is also some concern about job losses and loss of market access by smaller banks. Changing an organization's behavior is difficult and takes sustained effort, said DirectBooks CEO Rich Kerschner. Interest in automation grew as desks struggled with corporate bond volumes that touched a record $1.78 trillion in 2020. Three years into it, only a small proportion of orders and allocation messages for a new bond were going through DirectBooks. Once in place, hundreds of investors using OMS platforms could send their order messages and receive allocation messages through DirectBooks, said Kerschner.

Persons: Carlo Allegri, Rich Kerschner, Spencer Lee, salespeople, Daniel Botoff, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, DirectBooks, Chris Sztam, BlackRock's Aladdin, RBC's Botoff, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Anna Driver Organizations: New York Stock, REUTERS, Bloomberg, underwriters, RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, P Global Market Intelligence, Development, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, New York City , New York, U.S, Wells, DirectBooks, Charles

By doing so, if they get capital relief, they would reduce the capital they need to keep against them for regulatory capital purposes, according to banking industry sources. “There has certainly been growing interest in these transactions as banks seek regulatory capital relief," said Missy Dolski, global head of capital markets at alternative investment firm Varde Partners, an active investor in such products. "This guidance makes it more clear what structures would need affirmative approval for capital relief and what is required to comply," she added. Directly issued credit-linked notes could also qualify but would need to be approved by the Fed, said the Q&A. These clarifications come after growing calls for clarity on which of these bespoke trades issued by U.S. banks would qualify for capital relief, the banking industry sources said.

Persons: Missy Dolski, Michael Bright, ”, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Megan Davies, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Federal Reserve, Varde Partners, Fed, SPV, Structured Finance Association, European Central Bank, Reuters, Thomson Locations: U.S, Major U.S

☆ US junk debt deals carry higher guardrails for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Twelve high-yield issuers have raised $9.6 billion this week, making it the busiest week since November 2021, according to JPMorgan. This stands in stark contrast to the same period in 2022, when only 25% of a total $81 billion was secured debt, according to Informa Global Markets data. According to rating agency Fitch, junk debt defaults are expected to reach 4.5% of all outstanding U.S. junk debt by the end of 2023, up from 2.8% in July. The extra level of protection and high investment returns are ensuring strong demand for new junk debt. The loans are part of a $9.4 billion debt package - the largest since last year's buyout of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Fitch, Anthony Canale, it's, Brian Gelfand, TCW, Goldman Sachs, Elon Musk, Jefferies, Simon, Matt Tracy, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Hugh Lawson Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, JPMorgan, Informa, Reuters, Covenant, ICE, Morningstar, GTCR, KKR, Jefferies, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S

☆ Bond investors show confidence in Schwab after cost-cutting
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The company logo for Financial broker Charles Schwab is displayed at a location in the financial district in New York, U.S., March 20, 2023. The announcement led to a 5% fall in Schwab shares on Tuesday but did not hurt investor appetite for its new bonds. "The strong response shows bond investors, at least in the near term, have gotten over their worries about the credit fundamentals of top-tier regional banks after the banking crisis in March," said Richard Wolff, head of U.S. syndicate at Societe Generale (SOGN.PA). Schwab's bond trade also drew attention as new investment grade bond supply this month has so far been lower than expected. Counting Schwab's $2.35 billion in bonds, investment-grade bond volume sits at just $3.45 billion for the week and $67.1 billion so far in August, according to Informa Global Markets data.

Persons: Charles Schwab, Brendan McDermid, Schwab, Richard Wolff, Dan Krieter, Brian Mulberry, David Del Vecchio, Natalie Trevithick, Matt Tracy, Nupur Anand, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Sonali Paul Organizations: REUTERS, Societe Generale, BMO Capital, Zacks Investment Management, Federal Home Loan Bank, Payden, Informa, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, Los Angeles

Edward Marrinan, macro credit strategy desk analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities America, added: "Credit risk at this point is mispriced." The move prompted a sell-off in equities and slight widening in corporate credit spreads. The average investment-grade bond spreads as of on Thursday were just a few basis points wider than the tightest levels touched this year in July and 16 basis points tighter from January. Junk-bond spreads are 98 basis points inside January levels. "With market consensus now expecting a soft landing, the credit markets are arguably underpricing default risk," BMO’s Krieter said.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Cindy Beaulieu, Edward Marrinan, Moody's, Daniel Krieter, Krieter, Marrinan, Manuel Hayes, Hayes, BMO’s Krieter, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Davide Barbuscia, Paritosh Bansal, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: NYSE, American Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, U.S . Federal Reserve, SMBC Nikko Securities America, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Investors, Reuters, BMO Capital Markets, London, Insight Investment, Informa, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S

A view shows the logo of Credit Suisse on a building near the Hallenstadion where Credit Suisse Annual General Meeting took place, two weeks after being bought by rival UBS in a government-brokered rescue, in Zurich, Switzerland, April 4, 2023. REUTERS/Pierre AlbouyNEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - UBS Group (UBSG.S) is laying off employees from Credit Suisse's investment bank this week in New York, a source familiar with the situation said. Bloomberg reported about the closure of the Houston office late on Tuesday. The job cuts come after UBS closed a government-backed deal to buy Credit Suisse in June. Since the announcement of the deal, UBS has made clear it will reduce the risk of Credit Suisse's investment bank.

Persons: Pierre Albouy, Tatiana Bautzer, Chris Reese, Diane Craft Organizations: Credit Suisse, UBS, REUTERS, Credit, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: Zurich, Switzerland, New York, Houston

☆ US bank preferred capital issuance makes a tentative comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Shankar Ramakrishnan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

So-called preferred securities, which are one of the riskiest forms of debt but also have some characteristics of stocks, are popular among banks as a way to boost their capital for regulatory purposes. More than $160 billion of preferreds were issued in 2020 and 2021 each, when rates were low. Volume dropped last year to $70 billion as the U.S. Federal Reserve embarked on an interest rate hiking cycle. When Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) issued a new public preferred security earlier this month, investor demand far outweighed supply. The $1.725 billion deal received orders of over $6 billion, bringing total issuance for the year to $37 billion.

Persons: preferreds, Wells, ”, Daniel Botoff, Allie Quine, Cohen, Steers, Quine, WELLS, Wells Fargo, RBC's Botoff, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Paritosh Bansal, Matthew Lewis Organizations: U.S . Federal Reserve, Credit Suisse, UBS Group, Wells Fargo & Co, Treasury, RBC Capital Markets, Informa Global, Thomson Locations: U.S, preferreds, New York

☆ US commercial property delinquencies rise further in July -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The rise in the rate reflects continued stress in the U.S. commercial real estate sector as a post-pandemic environment had more people working from home or shopping online. Office loans made up roughly 35% of the newly special serviced and delinquent loans in July rated by KBRA at $898.4 million. So far in July, multiple office properties have been transferred to special servicing due to imminent monetary default. The total special servicing balance on multi-loan CMBS sharply increased $830.7 million to $14 billion, the largest rise since August 2020, the report said. KeyBank's subsidiary KeyBank Real Estate Capital handles commercial real estate lending and servicing.

Persons: Amr Alfiky, KBRA, Chris Gorman, KeyCorp, Matt Tracy, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Jamie Freed Organizations: REUTERS, KBRA, Estate Capital, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S

In recent weeks, banks have stepped up efforts to prevent such losses, according to commercial real estate (CRE) analysts and industry data. The 23 largest U.S. banks held 20% of office and downtown retail CRE loans, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve. Small banks also have high exposure to CRE loans as a percentage of their assets. About $2.1 billion of office loans pooled in CMBS matured in May, almost double the total amount from January through April, for example. If borrowers agreed to loan extensions, some $10.8 billion of office loans maturing this year would be pushed to later years, Moody's said.

Persons: Shaishav Agarwal, Agarwal, Steve Jellinek, Moody's, Kevin Fagan, Fagan, ” Fagan, Eliasaf, ”, Banks, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Matt Tracy, Paritosh Bansal, Nick Zieminski Organizations: U.S, Deutsche Bank, U.S . Federal, Manhattan, Northwind, Thomson Locations: York

☆ US bond traders seek edge by adopting tech -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Traders have slowly adopted execution management systems (EMS) in their workflow to enhance their execution capabilities as the market evolves, wrote Audrey Blater, senior analyst at Greenwich, in a report released on Tuesday. The fixed-income market adoption of EMS is at "a tipping point" where some traders, while reluctant to use technology, "acknowledged a change of habit is imminently necessary," said Blater. The tech makeover of a market that sees billions of dollars of trades in a year though is still gradual. The study found that only 39% of some 41 senior fixed-income traders in US asset management firms, hedge funds and insurance companies, identified using an EMS. Some 34% of the 41 traders in the study looked to chat to execute trades, versus 27% that turned to technology as their top choice.

Persons: Audrey Blater, Matt Tracy, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Conor Humphries Organizations: Coalition, Traders, Thomson Locations: Coalition Greenwich, Greenwich

☆ Analysis: Forex derivatives nudged out into the open as regulations increase costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Laura Matthews | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - Foreign-exchange investors are moving more of their over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trades to lookalike products on exchanges to avoid higher costs due to recent global regulations, helping inject transparency into a multitrillion-dollar market that is largely hidden from the public eye. The gradual behavioral change in FX derivatives trading is being caused by increasing margin and collateral costs, said Joe Midmore, chief commercial officer at OpenGamma, a derivatives analytics firm. OTC derivatives are privately negotiated contracts while cleared derivatives, though bilaterally negotiated, are booked with a clearinghouse such as a listed exchange. "They will also incur the operational, legal and custody costs of setting up margin facilities as well as the capital costs of posting margin," Houston said. "There is inherently risk involved in lots of people transacting derivatives with each other," said Riddle.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ben Feuer, Joe Midmore, ”, Michael Riddle, Paul Houston, Houston, ForexClear, James Pearson, Tom Arnold, Joe Spiro, Peter Vassallo, Riddle, Laura Matthews, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Megan Davies, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Societe Generale, Banking Supervision, International Organization of Securities Commissions, CME, CME Group, FX, Reuters Graphics British, Financial, ForexClear, BNP, Management, Thomson Locations: Saudi, New York, Hazeltree

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW.PA) said late on Monday it will transfer its Westfield San Francisco shopping mall to lenders. The announcement followed Park Hotels & Resorts (PK.N) statement last week that it ceased making payments toward a $725 million mortgage linked to its Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels. Westfield's decision is the latest blow to San Francisco, the once-booming tech hub that has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The potential for difficulties from commercial real estate to flow through to banks is also becoming a bigger worry for investors and regulators. Warren Wachsberger, CEO of Aecom Capital, a real estate investor, said mall owners like Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield are focusing on their best properties.

Persons: Thomas LaSalvia, Warren Wachsberger, we're, Wachsberger, Granth, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Matt Tracy, Sriraj Kalluvila, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Westfield San, Resorts, Hilton San Francisco, Square, downtown, Real Estate Economics, Aecom, Westfield, U.S, Flagship, Nordstrom, Banana Republic, Washington DC, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Westfield, Westfield San Francisco, downtown San Francisco, Bengaluru, New York, Washington

Investment-grade rated companies issued $152 billion in May, making it the busiest May since 2020 when the pandemic crisis prompted record debt issuance volumes, according to data from Informa Global Markets. "I believe we have seen an acceleration of issuance into May," said Richard Wolff, head of US bond syndicate at SG CIB, saying this was a result of debt issuance being pulled forward. This debt issuance spree is on the back of strong demand for what were relatively higher yielding corporate bonds after Treasury yields rose in May from levels touched in late April. New investment-grade bonds in May received orders that were three to four times the offering size on average, according to IGM data. CHANGING TIDEThe debt binge, however, gave a broad hint that the largest companies in the world are not optimistic on borrowing conditions later in the year.

Persons: Richard Wolff, Wolff, Manuel Hayes, Jessica Lehmann, Blair Shwedo, Jiyann Daemi, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Matt Tracy, Laura Matthews, Megan Davies, Matthew Lewis Organizations: YORK, U.S, Investment, Informa Global, Junk, SG CIB, London, Insight Investment, Treasury, HSBC, U.S . Bank, IG, TD Securities, Thomson Locations: New York

Reflecting investor optimism about passage, the cost of insuring exposure to a U.S. debt default dropped on Tuesday, but some concerns remained because of the tight timeline and opposition from some lawmakers. Last week, credit rating agency Fitch placed its "AAA" rating of U.S. sovereign debt on watch for a possible downgrade, citing downside risks including political brinkmanship and a growing debt burden. In a previous debt ceiling crisis in 2011 rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. top 'AAA' rating by one notch a few days after a debt ceiling deal, citing political polarization and insufficient steps to right the nation's fiscal outlook. "Even if a U.S. default is averted, a ratings downgrade could still happen," Vishwanath Tirupattur, a strategist at Morgan Stanley, said in a research note on Sunday. Some also fear a debt ceiling resolution could only provide short-term relief to markets because the U.S. Treasury is expected to quickly refill its account with bond sales, sucking out hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from the market.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Fitch, Raymond James, Ed Mills, Alex Anderson, Vishwanath Tirupattur, Morgan Stanley, Spokespeople, Blair Shwedo, Davide Barbuscia, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Pete Schroeder, Megan Davies, David Gregorio Our Organizations: YORK, Democratic, Republican, U.S . Treasury Department, BMO Capital Markets, AAA, Moody's, U.S . Treasury, Thomson Locations: U.S

May 28 (Reuters) - Good news of a tentative deal for the U.S. debt ceiling impasse may quickly turn out to be bad news for financial markets. "That's where the debt ceiling matters." In that case, "the impact on broader financial markets would likely be relatively muted," Daniel Krieter, director of fixed income strategy, BMO Capital Markets, said in a report. Some bankers said they fear financial markets may not have accounted for the risk of a liquidity drain from banks' reserves. Bankers put it to hope that the debt ceiling impasse would be resolved without significant dislocation to markets, but warn that's a risky strategy.

☆ Analysis: Overexposed US regional banks could sell commercial property loans
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Matt Tracy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Still, previously unreported data from New York-based real estate data provider Trepp, shared with Reuters, show many regional banks' holdings exceed thresholds stipulated by regulators. While big banks have recently warned about CRE exposure, the new Trepp data underscores how acute and widespread the problem is across the banking sector. The regulatory guidance requires that banks exceeding these thresholds "should employ heightened risk management practices," including potential sales of specific loans. Meanwhile, New York Community Bancorp (NYCB.N) and Flagstar Bank [RIC:RIC:FBCANK.UL] were among the top five banks listed by Trepp that exceeded the CRE loan threshold. In Tuesday congressional testimony, FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg warned CRE loan portfolios "face challenges" should market conditions persist.

By offloading some of the risk on their loans, the banks can significantly reduce how much capital they need to set aside to cover potential losses, according to law firm Clifford Chance. A bank can normally transfer risks of losses equivalent to around 7% to 12% of a loan portfolio, two market sources said. With synthetic structures, a bank transfers the risk via credit derivatives or guarantees but keeps holding the underlying exposures. The IFC sold BNP a $50 million guarantee on $1 billion of loans to emerging markets, they said, without disclosing terms. While Europe has been at the forefront for risk transfers, the stock of loans covered by SRTs is small relative to European banks' balance sheets.

A source with knowledge of the matter said that Swiss regulators are encouraging UBS and Credit Suisse to merge, but that both banks do not want to do so. Credit Suisse shares jumped 9% in after-market trading following the FT report. Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment on the report. "Credit Suisse is a very special case," said Frédérique Carrier, head of investment strategy at RBC Wealth Management. The supervisors were told deposits were stable across the euro zone and exposure to Credit Suisse was immaterial, a source familiar with the meeting's content told Reuters.

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