Singapore a capital-raising hotspot for European banks

Singapore

SINGAPORE has become the go-to market in Asia for European banks needing to beef up their capital to comply with regulatory requirements.

So far this year European banks have sold almost S$3 billion of debt in the Singapore dollar bond market, up from S$850 million in 2015.

A convergence of factors such as a deep market and a competitive swap market has made Singapore the Asian capital for European banks to issue debt, especially Additional Tier 1 capital instruments (AT1) like perpetual or hybrid bonds.

"The two key reasons …