Swaps have not proved the easiest sector of the market to take electronic. Vast as the market is, the main counterparties are a handful of international banks who know each other well and are used to dealing with each other by phone. But this has not stopped players such as independent trading platform Swapstream attacking the market.
But will they be successful? The danger is that Swapstream wins the war but loses the peace – that is the market converts but not by using a third-party provider.

Spiro Pappas of ABN AMRO and Charles Lucas of ABN AMRO Rothschild talk to Jules Stewart about the future of capital management post-Basel II and how preparation for the Accord’s implementation has changed the thinking of financial institutions.
Basel II may be just round the corner or it may be three years down the road, depending which commentators you listen to. Nevertheless, the final draft is on the table and financial institutions worldwide are being forced to think in a different way.

Tom de Swaan, chief financial officer at ABN AMRO, tells Jules Stewart what Basel II and IAS will bring to the finance industry and why it’s time to get moving on implementation.

ABN AMRO’s Ronan Donohue charts the progress of hybrid capital and the ever-increasing appeal around the world of this once revolutionary product.

ABN AMRO’s Christoph Anhamm explores the reasons behind the growth of covered bonds and considers future market drivers.

Has securitisation had its day? Though the markets may change, William Ross of ABN AMRO says the story is far from over.

ABN AMRO’s Niels Slikker illustrates the covered bond versus securitisation debate with a case study.

The split that formed DEPFA Bank also halved its capital base. It turned to the hybrid capital market in the search for new opportunities, hiring ABN AMRO to joint-lead manage a E300m deal that demonstrated a groundswell of retail demand.
By the mid-1990s, it was clear that the framework of the German Mortgage Bank Act had become too restrictive for the ongoing development of DEPFA’s public finance and property activities. A proposal was tabled in 2001 to split the group into two specialist banks, a public finance bank headquartered in Dublin (DEPFA Bank) and Aareal Bank, a German-based property bank. DEPFA Bank is today a leading global provider of financial services to public sector clients, from budget-related financing to the funding of infrastructure projects and investment banking solutions for public sector authorities.

Spanish bank la Caixa has established a full curve of covered bonds. Jules Stewart reports on ABN AMRO’s role as joint bookrunner on some of la Caixa’s benchmark issues.