The GlobalCapital Podcast
A weekly podcast from GlobalCapital, the capital markets news service based in London and New York, discussing its most interesting stories from around the world.
Every Friday, listen to lively discussion about the very latest themes, the most innovative and important bond and equity issues and syndicated loans and much more from the capital markets.
This podcast is for anyone working in - or who wants to work in - the capital markets from investment bankers, to funding and treasury officials, investors, lawyers, analysts, NGOs and lobbyists, regulators and policy makers, and analysts.
GlobalCapital has been the "voice of the markets" for over 35 years, covering bond, loan, equity and securitisation markets around the world.
We cover everything from public sector bond issuers, financial institutions, emerging markets and investment grade corporate bonds and loans to securitisation (including CLOs and ABS), regulation and market news as well as industry gossip.
GlobalCapital is written for capital markets professionals but the podcast is of value to anyone with an interest in the industry, whether you have been working in it for as long as we have, or are looking to make your first career move into it.
This podcast is a commute-sized slice of everything that's most interesting from the world's capital markets with the aim of helping you sound smarter in your morning meeting, or making you stand out from the crowd of other hopefuls when kick-starting your career.
And don't forget, you can #AskGC anything you like and we will select the best questions to answer on the show.
Contact us at podcast@globalcapital.com
The GlobalCapital Podcast
The European Union: the future of a bond market behemoth
◆ Riso and Ruhl on the development of the market's biggest new bond issuer
◆ Beyond NextGeneration EU: can the bloc fund defence?
◆ The campaign for sovereign-like borrower status
The European Union is the highest profile bond issuer in the market. In response to the pandemic, it ramped up its borrowing to fund member states' recovery from the disaster, going from raising around €500m a year to around €150bn almost overnight.
As an issuer, it dominates the public sector bond market and in this episode, GlobalCapital asked two of its most important figures, when it comes to its bond market activities, about what lies in store.
We talked about how the issuer's capital markets presence is developing, why it believes it should be classed as a sovereign-style issuer (and the progress it has made), and its possible future funding needs.
Our guests:
Stephanie Riso is the director general of DG Budget within the European Commission — the department responsible for raising and allocating the money the EU needs to implement policy, including from the bond market.
She took over the directorate in March 2023, joining from the cabinet of Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, where she oversaw the creation of the €800bn NextGenerationEU programme that the EU's bond issues fund.
Siegfried Ruhl is hors classe advisor to DG Budget and a veteran of the public sector bond market. He initially took the post on a short secondment from the European Financial Stability and European Stability Mechanism — the two bond issuing bailout vehicles for EU member states founded during the sovereign debt crisis, which he helped set up.
Over four years later he is still at the heart of developing the EU's capabilities as a bond issuer — a task he is well versed in having not only been there since the start with the EFSF and ESM but also having helped to create Germany's Finanzagentur, the country's debt management office.
