Sector developments and company hires

‘Quick fix’ for NPE, synthetic securitisation
The European Commission has adopted a capital markets recovery package, as part of its overall coronavirus recovery strategy. The measures aim to make it easier for capital markets to support European businesses to recover from the crisis via targeted changes to capital market rules.

Building on recent work by the EBA, the proposals include measures to encourage a broader use of securitisation in the recovery phase - by freeing up bank capital and supporting banks in their effort to enhance lending to households and businesses - in two targeted areas. The amendments would: extend the STS framework to on-balance-sheet synthetic securitisation; and remove regulatory obstacles to the securitisation of non-performing exposures (NPEs).

Although the European securitisation framework will still be subject to a comprehensive review by January 2022, the Commission has adopted targeted amendments now due to their expected benefits for economic recovery post-coronavirus.

In other news…

EaSI guarantees enhanced
The EIF and the European Commission are set to launch new Covid-19 support measures under the EaSI guarantee instrument programme to enhance access to finance for micro-borrowers, micro- and social enterprises. The objective is to further incentivise financial intermediaries to lend money to small businesses, mitigating the sudden increase in perceived risk triggered by the coronavirus pandemic – via guarantees and counter-guarantees - and alleviating working capital and liquidity constraints of final beneficiaries targeted by the EaSI programme. Key features of these new measures include higher risk coverage, broadening of certain parameters - such as an increase of the maximum exposure for micro and social enterprises - and more flexible terms. To date, the guarantees provided by EIF to financial intermediaries operating in the micro and social finance space have unlocked around €1.4bn of debt financing, allowing more than 85,000 enterprises across Europe to access financing.

EMEA
Grant Maxwell has been appointed global head of alternative risk transfer (ART) at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), reporting to AGCS SE board member and chief underwriting officer corporate Tony Buckle. Maxwell has led the global ART team on an interim basis since February, having been ART head of underwriting & portfolio management since May 2019. He originally joined AGCS in March 2008 and was regional head of ART in London, also becoming head of ART deal management in February 2010. Prior to his time with AGCS, Maxwell held senior underwriting roles at XL Capital, Gerling and St Paul Re.