Bad banks: respite or recovery?

Send us Fan MailBanking crisis not over, says veteran analystWhy European banks are sitting out the primary market revivalFrom Berlaymont to Berlin: reading the runes in the SSA marketThe creatures of the capital markets poked their noses tentatively out of their burrows this week to see if the banking storm had passed and to survey its impact. Issuers tested the primary markets with new bonds and no further banks needed rescuing. But, according to veteran equity analyst, Steve Clapham, founder of Behind The Balance Sheet, this could well be a lull in the torrent rather than the promise of blue skies from now on.He talked to us about the state of the banking sector, its serious problems, the difficulty in fixing them and whether more lenders could go to the wall in the near future. Meanwhile, we looked into when banks will be able to issue fresh debt and what they will be asked to pay for it after a week where they were the most cautious type of issuer to do venture into new public funding.It was a different story in the sovereign, supranational and agency bond market where there were deals galore. But after a barnstormer from the EU, the following pack did deals that were less spectacular. We assess what this tells us about the state of the bond markets.