Bond

According to Michael Story, economist at Western Asset, while some peripheral European countries will be unable to escape restructuring their debt, the euro is unlikely to collapse any time soon as a result, and should in the short to medium term strengthen its position as a leading currency as demand to join the eurozone grows from former Soviet-controlled states.

Natixis played an active role in the reopening of the primary securitization market in Europe with the first French asset securitization since the beginning of the crisis in 2007 for Socram Banque (Titrisocram 2011-1).

The credit default swap market is pricing in a 65% probability of a default within the next five years.

According to Mandarine Gestion, current valuation levels in the banking sector constitute opportunities rarely seen over a medium-term horizon. However, over the short term, investors are preferring to focus on two factors while at the same time exaggerating in our view their consequences and therefore provoking excesses: sovereign debt and liquidity levels.

The results of QIS 5 confirmed that convertible bonds bear low capital cost. A balanced-profile convertible bond portfolio with optimized convexity therefore obtains a moderate intrinsic SCR whilst benefiting from «equity» exposure.