Market updates

With the summer holiday season fast approaching, now feels like a good moment to pause and take stock of developments in the European ABS market year-to-date.

In his latest update, TwentyFour Asset Management’s George Curtis looks back at a volatile yet resilient Q2 2025 for the Multi-sector bond team.

TwentyFour Asset Management’s Gordon Shannon reflects on a volatile but resilient second quarter of 2025 for the Investment Grade team, shaped by shifting tariff policies and evolving central bank actions.

As the second quarter of 2025 draws to a close, TwentyFour Asset Management’s Elena Rinaldi shares her insights on a period shaped by significant geopolitical and macroeconomic developments.

The UK Prime RMBS market has continued to evolve in 2025, with a broadening of its participant base driven by the entrance of two new sponsors (Nottingham Building Society and Newcastle Building Society) which have both priced inaugural deals this year.

Primary issuance in the European high yield (HY) market surged in June with €21.2bn of supply marking the highest monthly volume on record.

The turbulent start to 2025 has sent many investors seeking alternatives to US assets, but in our view European fixed income can offer more than just diversification.

Last Friday, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published its semi-annual Risk Assessment Report. It is always a good read, as it provides a summary of trends in the banking sector and highlights risks that might be emerging in parts of the banking system.

Blog posts about regulation rarely trouble our most-read charts, but on this occasion we think the payback on time invested looks more compelling.

Last week marked another record-breaking year for the securitisation industry as over 5,500 market participants gathered in Barcelona for the annual Global ABS conference, surpassing last year’s attendance and reflecting the growing momentum across both public asset-backed securities (ABS) and private asset-backed finance (ABF) markets.

Despite Israel and Iran exchanging fire for a fifth day, markets seem to be completely disregarding the possibility of this conflict mutating into something serious for the global economy.

While tariffs have done meaningful damage to the economic outlook and raised volatility in rates markets, the softening of the US stance has restored confidence in credit returns for 2025.

The latest Labour Market Overview published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday morning has raised eyebrows, with some metrics seemingly having deteriorated quite rapidly versus last month.

The European high yield (HY) default rate spiked higher in May with the largest monthly default volume on record (€6bn).

As markets digest and speculate about the implications of the Trump administration’s 1,000+ page One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), new details are beginning to emerge.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will be alone this week in delivering its latest monetary policy decision, with the next Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Japan meetings not until the week commencing June 16.

Over the last couple weeks, we have seen an ongoing increase in government bond yields across the major global economies, with a particular focus on Japan as yields on longer dated Japanese government bonds (JGBs) have moved sharply higher.

Monday was a somewhat eventful day for markets with several headlines in the US and Europe. Risk assets did not necessarily reflect the eventfulness of the day, finishing virtually unchanged, while rates had a volatile day that ultimately produced a sizeable rally.

Thus far in 2025, the prevailing and overriding topic of conversation amongst economists and market participants has been tariffs and what they might mean for the global macro outlook.

European banks are coming to the end of the Q1 2025 reporting season, and on the surface there are multiple headwinds to contend with.

With much fanfare, President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer announced a “historic” trade deal between the US and UK on Thursday. The main points for the UK are a reduction in auto tariffs from 27.5% to 10% for the first 100,000 cars that enter the US, and the removal of steel and aluminium tariffs.

April was one of the most volatile months across financial markets in recent memory, triggered by President Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement on April 2.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published its first estimate for Q1 US GDP growth, which at -0.3% was slightly worse than the Bloomberg consensus of -0.2% on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), seasonally adjusted, annualised basis.

The high yield bond market reopened in Europe last week after a three-week hiatus triggered by the US tariffs fallout. Aside from a private placement by Very Group on April 10, the last public European high yield deal was from UK homebuilder Miller Homes on March 31, so we were interested to see how the first post-tariffs deal would be received.