Christmas Cheer with Alumni

ICMA Centre Senior Fellow Richard Comotto has appeared on Reuters commenting on a recent International Capital Market Association (ICMA) white paper looking at the financial crisis in Greece and the preceding crisis with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Munich, 16 October 2013 – There is currently a high level of uncertainty on the international financial markets, due to the budget dispute in the USA surrounding the proposed raising of the borrowing limit. The markets are waiting with bated breath to see whether the Democrats and the Republicans will be able to agree on raising the debt ceiling, which currently stands at just under 17 trillion US dollars. The key question for investors is whether the USA and other countries will be able to pay back the debts they have taken on or whether, as in the case of the debt cut in Greece, they can expect to see losses on their investments. A recent study based on sustainability rating agency oekom research’s country ratings shows that sustainability ratings are a reliable indicator of countries’ solvency and that taking sustainability ratings into account allows investors to make a better assessment of the overall risks.

Professor Chris Brooks and Mr Ivan Sangiorgi’s work on the link between age and the financial risk tolerance of retail investors in the UK has won the Behavioural Finance Working Group (BFWG)'s Best Quantitative Paper Award.