Martin Egan on Capital Markets

🎥 Jun 05, 2014 📺 VLEARNorg ⏱ 1m 👁 154 views

Martin Egan oulines his role within the International Capital Market Association.

About Martin Egan

Martin Egan, formerly Global Head of Primary Markets and Origination at BNP Paribas and chair of the International Capital Market Association's primary markets practices committee, has spoken about debt capital markets in the Middle East and the transition away from LIBOR. In 2018, Egan described the year as "a good year so far for the region" with "large submissions from Saudi and from the Qataris" receiving good responses, and he expected continued issuance due to "a lot of redemptions coming up now in 2019" and "rates still at historical lows." He noted that geopolitical risk concerns in the region were "caveated by the fact that you've got all prices rising" and commodity prices rising, which he called "a real sort of good backstop for the region." Egan stated that "credits are pricing at pretty fair levels" but that geopolitical risk could become "more pronounced" if the region became "more problematic." Regarding the transition from LIBOR, Egan said "there is no easy answer" and predicted the result would be "less of a sort of global standard but very specific standards in each relevant jurisdiction," emphasizing that the most important factor is that any replacement rate is "fair and transparent." In earlier remarks, Egan described his role chairing the primary markets practices committee, which he said "handles the underwriting capacity and capabilities of the marketplace" and includes members from major international and domestic banks. He stated that the committee meets quarterly and focuses on "improving market practice," including allocation procedures and legal aspects, with the goal of ensuring "the market works as efficiently as it can" and that "everything we do is seen to be fair and clear to all parties."

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Transcript (1 segments)

Martin Egan0:05

My name is Martin Egan, global head of primary markets at BP Parabol. I chair the Primary Markets Practices Committee. This is a committee that handles the underwriting capacity and capabilities of the marketplace. We number over 30 members and include all the big international banks in the debt capital markets, including the likes of JP Morgan, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, also the very large domestic players including Nordea and Danske Bank. We meet quarterly and we focus on improving market practice. This can include matters like the allocation procedures, partly legal aspects of the business, and really making sure that all parties understand how the markets work, what makes them efficient, and what makes them so relevant. You may ask why are they relevant? The reason is we are a key part in funding the global economy. Many of our clients, our borrowers and investors, the market is their point of contact either for borrowing or investing. And we as a committee try to make sure that the market works as efficiently as it can. It's a very competitive marketplace, but it's an orderly marketplace, and it's up to my committee and my committee members to make sure what we do is transparent. We're open in terms of communication and it's a level playing field to all. As regulation dominates the market, committee members have had to evolve as well, and I think progress has been pretty positive. However, it's very important to make sure that everything we do is seen to be fair and clear to all parties.