Citi bearish on Irish bonds despite NTMA role

BoyRacer · August 31, 2010, 5:41am

Citi bearish on Irish bonds despite NTMA role -> independent.ie/business/iris … 17949.html

US bank Citigroup is predicting that Irish bond prices will slide further, even though the company is one of the National Treasury Management Agency’s primary dealers in government bonds.
The NTMA maintains a list of 15 primary dealers that buy Irish government bonds and then resell them on to the market. Citigroup is one of the 15 and it is also a member of the Irish Stock Exchange.
It maintains a so-called ‘Chinese wall’ between its primary dealer bond desk and its team of fixed-income analysts.
It is this team that has published some of the most bearish forecasts on Irish bonds in the past week.
**The bank said last week that the gap or ‘spread’ between Irish and German bonds was set to widen further as markets grew jittery over the amount of debt the Irish banks have to roll over.
Citigroup estimates Irish banks have about €13bn of debt to roll over in September, with about half of that expiring in just a two-day period.
**
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The_Unwelcome_Guest · August 31, 2010, 8:47am

Investment Bankers play both sides of the fence shocker!!!

spqr64 · August 31, 2010, 8:54am

Worse than that, if you asked them they’d probably tell you they’re not in it for the money.