Bond Voyage

This month’s Bond Voyage looks at the Bulk Purchase Annuity (BPA) market in the UK – the quiet market making loud moves.

In this month’s Bond Voyage, we introduce SHIELD – the downside protection framework used by our fixed income division. SHIELD is designed to ensure our portfolios remain resilient in challenging market conditions while maintaining capital efficiency.

Asset-based finance is capturing the attention of institutional investors – from pension schemes to insurers – thanks to its diverse risk-return drivers and its growing role as a strategic building block in investors’ portfolios.

Vital industries for UK growth like steel or cement are also energy intensive, and their decarbonisation is essential. We convened a roundtable of experts to discuss barriers and solutions to unlocking low-carbon investment opportunities.

In this month’s Bond Voyage, our Solutions team investigates the reasons behind the widening gilt-swap spread and its implications for government bond investors, in particular for insurance companies.

In this month’s Bond Voyage, our solutions team explores the implications of a “higher for longer” US interest rate environment and what it could mean for investment grade (IG) investors.

In June, our credit teams look under the bonnet of the European industry’s growth engine.

Emerging-market debt has proved a rare bright spot so far this year as investors struggle to assess the impact of US political upheaval. In this article, Carmen Altenkirch and Nafez Zouk advance reasons why the market is well placed to weather ongoing market turbulence.

Investor engagement with governments on their climate commitments can be a powerful complement to other forms of stewardship. It can also help investors identify opportunities and mitigate risks, says Thomas Dillon.

In May, our EMD team discusses the most effective way to manage fixed income through episodes of heightened uncertainty.

Advances in data analytics and AI-driven insights are changing the landscape in fixed income investing, and the pace of change in innovation and technological adoption is remarkable.

This month, our fixed income teams discuss the boom in hybrid issuance and weigh up the risks and opportunities of potential tariffs, interest rate moves and fiscal dynamics.