Douglas Flint and Illiquid Assets

trading operations: We wanted banks to shrink their trading operations and they did, Flint said at a conference organized by Swiss Re in Rueschlikon, Switzerland on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg. Now we’re worrying about how much more liquidity is available to long-term investors for their illiquid assets, and hence their appetite to take on such assets. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked InShare on Reddit Share on Google+E-mailHSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Douglas Flint said the clampdown on banks’ trading arms by regulators is contributing to concern by the world biggest investors that liquidity could vanish in a bond-market selloff. Flint echoed the concerns of Aberdeen Asset Management Plc Chief Executive Officer Martin Gilbert, who oversees $112 billion in fixed-income assets, and Black Rock Inc., the world largest asset manager, which have both set aside more money to meet requests from clients to pull their funds in the event of liquidity drying up. We want capital markets to grow in Europe to reduce economies’ dependence on banks, but regulatory rules coupled with low interest rates have made both securitization less attractive and market-making more expensive, Flint said. Global bond markets have lost about $640 billion since the end of April, driven by a surge in volatility linked to the worsening Greek turmoil. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.