Treasury summons bond houses over private placements

The UK's largest bond houses will meet Financial Services Secretary Lord Myners this week as the Treasury looks to accelerate growth in the private placement market.

In a roundtable taking place at the Treasury on Wednesday, CIOs from some 15 firms will discuss the feasibility of developing the UK’s private placement market as proposed in Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Budget report last week. The Government says it wants to work with asset managers to encourage further take-up of private placement and create a wider issuer and investor base. The UK’s private placement market is at present relatively small, totalling £4.3bn in the first half of 2009 – raised through 148 transactions. However, UK issuers and investors have been active in the much...