SSAs lurch into the unknown

Long sheltered from the credit crunch, sovereign, supranational and agency spreads have ballooned in the wake of the introduction of government-guaranteed bank debt. How will SSA names find their place in the uncharted territory of Libor-plus? Jethro Wookey reports.

UNEASE HAS SPREAD to sovereign, supranational and agency issuers. “It’s the most uncertain time ever seen in this market. Every morning, we don’t know what the day will bring. The banks don’t know, the investors don’t know. No one knows,” says a European supranational funding head reflecting on the present state of the SSA market.

The source of such uncertainty is the newly minted asset class of government-guaranteed bank paper, in which Barclays launched the first deal on October 24.

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