Covenant levels comes under scrutiny

There has been some debate in the European corporate bond market regarding the level of covenants companies provide to investors. Fund managers have called for a greater level of due diligence and transparency from issuers. Others however think of this as unrealistic and may force issuers to go to the US markets rather than Europe. Fund managers believe the European debt capital market would become more efficient and less volatile if a number of key features were introduced. These include minimum covenants for corporate issuers; issuer call options; more rigorous documentation standards;...