A SUPPLEMENT TO EUROMONEY/FEBRUARY: MARKETS 1998
Emu is just three dinner parties away for one senior European banker. That doesn't mean he has a barren social diary - his reference date for the single currency is not January 1 1999 but May 1 1998. That's when countries to be included in phase one of European monetary and economic union will be announced, with bilateral exchange rates set two days later. Market participants reckon it's the pivotal date in the Eurobond market calendar.
"One surprise of 1997 was that we didn't see much growth in the market in euros," says Mark Watson, managing director and head of Wxed-income syndicate at Salomon Smith Barney. "Cross-border Xows still aren't happening to any great extent. But once we get clariWcation of Emu in black and white - who's going to be in, and at what exchange rate - I think it will be a catalyst to the whole market."
Last year Ecu Xows accounted for just 1.5% of the primary market. "For all the talk that we've seen in the last year, until such a time as every investor feels the need to buy and to hold euros rather than Deutschmarks, francs, lire or whatever, then that market is not going to explode.