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A special report by Jesus Castillo – Senior Economist at Natixis – has featured in an article in Il Sole 24 Ore. The article looks at the development of Italian sovereign debt, and how it is set to evolve in the decade following the outbreak of the economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to Natixis, the Treasury accounts will not end up out of control, but it will be impossible to return to pre-crisis levels, and the role of ECB will remain fundamental.

To read the full article, please click here.

Roland Boekhout, Commerzbank’s Board Member responsible for Corporate Clients, recently spoke about how the bank is helping corporates deal with the unprecedented challenges brought by the coronavirus crisis.

“We have established a dedicated Commerzbank Mittelstand loan facility of €700 million to support corporates with corona-related financing demand,” said Boekhout. “Through previous spells of uncertainty, we have been the trusted partner at the side of our clients – wherever they need us. Things are no different today.”

Boekhout also commented on the rapid implementation and effectiveness of the German government’s financial relief packages, such as the KfW programme. See more in Commerzbank Insights.

Financial IT has featured a full write-up of Leumi UK’s event “Game of Thrones: How to survive the trending battles in global technology”, organised alongside the group’s technology banking arm, LeumiTech, in February.

The event convened a range of influential figures from the technology industry – including senior representatives from Google, Amazon and Facebook – to engage in an open discussion on the state of the tech landscape in 2020. Moderated by Yifat Oron, CEO at LeumiTech, the discussion focused on the trends and challenges that are shaping the ever-changing tech industry – including rising tensions between the US and China, Amazon’s online retail dominance and the opportunities of implementing technology in the health sector, among other topics.

To read the full article, please click here.

Leumi UK has closed a £27.5 million deal with property developer Oranim Group to refinance Woodland Views – two residential blocks located in Canada Water. The refinancing will take place over a five-year term.

The deal marks a significant step forward for the bank as it continues to ramp up its activity in various areas within the UK property sector.

Following Moorgate’s outreach, the news was covered by Business Money, Development Finance Today, Property Funds World and Property Wire.

Leumi UK has closed a deal with hotel group Shiva Hotels to finance its latest high-end development, Middle Eight. The £62 million financing deal comes as the latest in Leumi’s longstanding partnership with Shiva Hotels, having previously funded high-end projects such as The Guardsman.

Situated on Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden, the hotel has been branded a “sustainable luxury lifestyle hotel” – featuring 180 bedrooms, 12 suites and multiple food and beverage outlets.

Following Moorgate’s outreach, the news was covered by Business Money, Development Finance Today, Hotel Analyst, Boutique Hotelier, RPBI and The Caterer.

Multi-specialist bank Leumi UK has announced the appointment of Anya Stanislawczyk to its property finance team as Deputy Relationship Manager. With over a decade of experience in the financial services industry, Anya brings extensive working knowledge of the UK real estate market.

In her new role, Anya will report to Alasdair Houghton – who heads Leumi UK’s activity in this space – and will be responsible for building on the bank’s residential and commercial property financing expertise, while working closely with new and existing clients to achieve their growth targets.

Following Moorgate’s outreach, the news was covered by Business Money, Commercial Reporter, Global Banking & Finance Review, EG and Property Week.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has released guidance to the trade finance market to address COVID-19 disruptions, urging governments and central banks to void any legal prohibitions on the use of electronic trade documentation.

Responding to the urgent need to address the disruptions facing the trade finance market as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, ICC has provided guidance to the market, governments and regulators through official publications: the ICC memo to government and central banks on essential steps to safeguard trade finance operations, along with the guidance paper on the impact of COVID-19 on trade finance transactions issue subject to ICC rules.

“With many banks unable to handle trade finance paper documents in person due to COVID-19, there is a growing risk that the underlying trade in goods could be disrupted,” says Olivier Paul, Director, Finance for Development at the ICC. “ICC and its members are taking unprecedented steps to limit potential disruption to the processing of trade finance transactions – yet, with the use of electronic trade documents in many jurisdictions either prohibited, or their legal status unclear, urgent government intervention is also required.”

Following Moorgate’s outreach, the news was covered by Trade Arabia, The Asian Banker, The Corporate Treasurer, Jdsupra, Fintech Insight, Crowdfund Insider, Gulf Projects, TXF, Finextra, TRF News, Business Money, Fintech Finance, Trade Finance Global and Foreign Trade.

S&P Global Ratings has appointed Paul Munday as Associate Director, Climate Adaptation & Resilience Specialist, to its Sustainable Finance team. Joining S&P Global Ratings from WSP UK, Munday has over a decade of experience working in climate adaptation and resilience in both the public and private sector, in the UK and abroad.

Munday will be based in London and report directly to Michael Wilkins, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Analytics & Research.

“We are delighted to welcome Paul to our Sustainable Finance team”, says Wilkins. “Despite their ever-increasing importance, climate adaptation and resilience projects are vastly underfunded on a global scale – largely due to the difficulties of quantifying the return on investment for projects that may only prove their true value at an unknown point in the future. Paul brings a wealth of expertise in this area that will benefit our team and, in turn, help investors, companies, governments to better protect our societies against the impacts of climate change.”

Following outreach by Moorgate, Munday’s appointment was covered by Environment Analyst, TXF, ImpactAlpha here and here, IPE, and Environmental Finance.