Structured Products and Derivatives

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed, at least temporarily, all facets of society and has had a truly global impact.  The scale of fatalities and the losses suffered by families are truly tragic.  Whilst the impact of the virus from a medical perspective is starting to become clearer, the economic impact of the pandemic is still largely unknown.  From Europe to Asia and the United States, businesses have been tested to their very limits by having to deal with often very stringent lockdown measures in an attempt to control the spread of the virus.  This blog examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the Indian economy, especially non-performing assets (NPAs).
Continue Reading India – a special situation? The impact of COVID-19 on Indian non-performing assets

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The appetite for ethical finance shows no sign of slowing. But as the interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) finances rises, so too do concerns about impact- and green-washing: the practice of making false or misleading claims about apparent ethical credentials.

Naturally, as an embryonic sector, many complex questions about ESG investment remain unexplored. Institutions are thus actively navigating this constantly evolving landscape in order to develop a financial ecosystem where investments are, as the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, put it, “both financially rewarding and environmentally sustainable”.
Continue Reading Shaping a sustainable financial ecosystem: how to integrate ESG factors

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Innovation and creating purposeful change for communities is at the very heart of what social impact finance is all about.  Such impact investments have never shied away from embracing that latest technological innovation or challenging the status quo.  In this vein, FinTech initiatives such as blockchain  have the potential to prove that they can be the catalyst for democratising data and opening new worlds of possibility to users and stakeholders around the globe.  A recent Harvard Business Review research project backs up these claims, and believes that there is strong evidence that blockchain can not only transform businesses and governments, but also have a profound impact on society as a whole.
Continue Reading Waves of change – how FinTech can drive the future of social impact finance

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Social finance, impact investing, blended finance…the endless industry jargon and terminology in this emerging asset class can be confusing. In this series, our industry leading global Social Impact Finance group looks to demystify the social finance market and its growing importance for financial institutions and investors.  

Greed is no longer good. The next generation of investors increasingly demand that their investments do more than just generate a financial return. Demand for social investment products is driven, in part, by millennials who prefer to invest in alignment with personal values. In response to this growing demand, chatter in financial markets is awash with talk of the ‘spectrum of capital’ – a map of the broad range of risk and return strategies that exist within impact investing markets, and how those relate to wider capital market strategies. The 2014 report from the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce, Asset Allocation Working Group, illustrated the landscape based on both investor financial objectives and impact (see diagram below).
Continue Reading Impact Finance Series: The Spectrum of Capital

The recent spate of litigation in CMBS transactions by noteholders to obtain interpretations of their rights directly in the English courts rather than through the note trustee raises two distinct questions: do investors have standing as a matter of both the transaction documents and general contract law to launch such proceedings and secondly should they

clocksI bring good news from the Bank of England. Whether you have been up all night trying to close a £1 billion securities transaction for your client, or you are buying a house and there’s a last minute snag, the deadline for settling securities transactions and making high-value cash transfers is due to be extended

Minibonds photoThis may be a slightly odd question with which to start a legal blog post, but do you like burritos, wine, or chocolate? Who doesn’t, right? If only there was a way of making money off your addiction to tasty Mexican treats or decadent Swiss truffles? Well, as it turns out, there might be…

Mini-bonds

Running man - RBSUThe Investment Plan, developed by the European Commission, has the potential to be one of the most important and radical changes to how the European Union operates in the last 25 years.  Not only will it seek to harmonise the financial and regulatory barriers to investment, but it will look to harness the collective

Much has been written regarding the recent EU and US sanctions targeting the Russian capital markets, military and oil sectors (our own commentary can be found here) and the broad nature of the sanctions has, it would seem, produced some (probably) unintended consequences when applied to the mechanics of day to day capital markets operations.  On their face, the capital markets sectoral sanctions are designed to cut off the ability of the sanctioned companies to access funding in the equity and debt markets.  Hence, broadly speaking, anybody who must comply with EU or US sanctions cannot participate or deal in any new debt or equity issued by a sanctioned entity once they have been put on the sanctions lists.  Existing debt or equity issued prior to the implementation of sanctions is grandfathered.

Continue Reading The issue of sanctions