English Abstract: There is a growing consensus that Venezuela will not be able to persist for much longer with its policy of full external debt service. The social costs are just too great. This implies a debt restructuring of some kind. Venezuela, principally through its state-owned oil...

Emerging market sovereigns issue bonds in the international capital markets governed by a foreign legal regime such as the law of England or New York State. European sovereigns, however, have been able to issue bonds governed by the issuer's own law. In the event of a future financial crisis,...

Issuing sovereign bonds in the international markets using a trust structure rather than a fiscal agency agreement conveys several benefits for the issuer and the holders of the bonds. Principal and interest payments received by a trustee will be less susceptible to attachment by third party...

The pari passu clause found in most cross-border lending instruments contains the borrower's promise to ensure that the obligation will always rank equally in right of payment with all of the borrower's other unsubordinated debts. The international financial markets have long understood the...

English Abstract: Argentina is once again seeking to restructure its external debt. To facilitate this process, the country is proposing to use the state-of-the-art collective action clause that was included in the bonds Argentina started issuing in the Spring of 2016. When it uncloaked its...

Lenders are perfectly free to decide for themselves whether, when, how, to whom and on what terms they will extend credit to a sovereign borrower. But all such loans will involve risks and those risks occasionally materialize. When they do, is a creditor obliged to cooperate with its fellow...

Confronted with eroding market confidence in a country's debt obligations, what's a local politician to do? Major changes to fiscal policies are inevitably controversial back home. Securing financial support from multilateral official sector entities usually involves knuckling under to unpopular...

Contributions to solving the globe’s environmental crisis are properly expected to come from every country to a greater or lesser degree depending on their share of responsibility for environmental pollution and their financial resources. But countries in financial distress and already unable...