Aurelia Butler

Shing said private assets were an essential for clients with large enough portfolios that could lock up their capital over a longer time frame, but were “not for everybody.””Everyone is look at selling these funds as if it were something new,” he told the audience at a conference in Monaco. “It’s more money for old rope,” he said. “The danger here is you have no idea of the default cycle, of the credit rating. We do not know how well they can manage that. And I think yes, there could be some accidents along the way.”Asset manager Blackstone (NYSE:BX) told the Financial Times in a report published on Tuesday it plans to double the size of its European private credit fund in the next year after raising 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to invest in this pocket of the market.The private credit market, where investment funds lend private equity portfolio businesses and other companies money, has boomed in recent years and is estimated to be worth some $1.7 trillion.($1 = 0.9328 euros) More

With most major Russian banks under Western sanctions over Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, foreign banks including Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and Italy’s UniCredit, have become key financial bridges with the West, boosting profits in the process.”They perform quite important functions in transferring funds, not only in the interests of our customers of these banks, but also foreign customers,” Peskov told reporters.European Central Bank Banking Supervision has asked all banks with significant exposure to Russia to speed up their de-risking efforts by setting a clear roadmap for downsizing and exiting the Russian market.Raiffeisen has faced particular scrutiny over its hefty Russia profits and ties to Moscow. The bank was warned by the U.S. Treasury in writing that its access to the U.S. financial system could be curbed, according to a person who has seen the correspondence.”Don’t forget that very many Western businesses work in the Russian economy, they continue to work here,” Peskov said. “They have huge, multi-billion investments and the majority of companies have not left, but continue to work in this market. “So they use these banking services. If they stop, well, these companies will be just as damaged as our companies.” About 1,000 companies have left the Russian market, a corporate exodus since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has cost foreign companies more than $107 billion in writedowns and lost revenue, a Reuters analysis has shown.Many multinational businesses, Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) International, PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP), Auchan, Nestle and Unilever (LON:ULVR), have maintained a presence in Russia. More

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LONDON (Reuters) – Central banks should embrace the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)has said, but stressed the technology should not replace humans when it comes to setting interest rates.In its first major report into the rapidly advancing world of AI, the central banking umbrella group said policymakers need to harness its immense power to monitor data in real time in order to “sharpen” their inflation-predicting abilities.That was something found badly wanting in the wake of COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when the U.S. Federal Reserve, ECB and other major central banks all failed to grasp the strength of the global inflation surge.New AI models should reduce the risk of a repeat although their untested nature and the fact they can “hallucinate” mean they should not become robo-ratesetters, Cecilia Skingsley, a top official at the BIS, said.”We like to hold humans accountable,” the former Swedish central banker said, referring to the crucial role borrowing costs play in society and the need for judgment. “So I can’t really see a future where an AI will be setting (interest) rates.”The BIS, often dubbed the central bankers’ central bank because of the joint work it does, already has eight projects involving AI. Hyun Song Shin, its head of research and top economic adviser, said policymakers should not view it as “something magical” but did say it can help find needles in haystacks and spot vulnerabilities in financial systems.The technology is also likely to radically reshape labour markets, impacting productivity and economic growth. Widespread adoption could see firms adjust prices more quickly in response to macro-economic changes with repercussions for inflation. The BIS cautioned that AI also introduces risks, such as new types of cyber attacks, and may amplify existing ones, such as herding, bank runs and financial asset fire sales. “The call for action to central banks is to foster a community of practice,” Shin said. “To share experience, to share best practice, but also to share data and the models themselves.” More

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NEW YORK (Reuters) -Formal negotiations between Sri Lankan authorities and international private creditors on over $12 billion in bonds are set to resume imminently after a group of bondholders signed non-disclosure agreements late last week, three sources told Reuters on Monday.The resumption of the talks comes days after the International Monetary Fund board approved a $336 million installment of the IMF’s $2.9 billion program. About $1 billion has already been disbursed.A representative of the bondholders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Earlier, the group said its negotiating committee included Amundi Asset Management, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) and its subsidiaries, Eaton (NYSE:ETN) Vance Management, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co (GMO) LLC, HBK Capital Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Neuberger Berman, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc, and Wellington Management.Separately, Sri Lanka said it will sign a debt restructuring agreement with a group of creditor nations on Wednesday – a major step to help stabilise the country’s finances. Sri Lanka in April rejected an initial bondholder proposal, citing some of its “baseline” assessments and a lack of a contingency option in the case of continued economic weakness as two main reasons for not reaching a deal.Sri Lanka plunged into its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades in 2022 with a severe dollar shortage sending inflation soaring to a high of 70%, its currency to record lows and its economy contracting 7.3%. The IMF bailout secured in March last year helped stabilize economic conditions.Avanti Save at Barclays Bank in Singapore said she expected the restructuring to be completed within months. Barclays calculates that a debt restructuring could see bonds issued with a starting coupon of 4% that would rise to 8%, and maturities on the debt extended by 10 years. Combined with 20-30% in write down of the principal – a so-called haircut – recovery values could be close to the mid-50 cents in the dollar, Save said in a note to clients. “We believe the sovereign may consider sweetening the deal for bondholders through creative recovery options for PDI and incorporating contingent payout structure (like VRI or MLB),” she added, referring to instruments where payout is dependent on economic performance or other variables. Sri Lanka’s international dollar bonds rose as much as 0.8 cents on Tuesday to trade around the 60 cents in the dollar threshold, Tradeweb data showed. The island nation will hold presidential elections by mid-October. More