Thoresen warns banks of buyers' strike over bond changes

ABI members, which include all of the UK's largest insurance groups with over £1trn of assets under management, are among the biggest buyers of bank bonds. Otto Thoresen, director-general of the ABI, told The Daily Telegraph attempts by banks to force debt investors to accept the terms of their bond exchange offers were "coercive" and could harm the banks' ability to refinance hundreds of billions of pounds of borrowings. Thoresen claimed banks were using a "thinly veiled threat" not to redeem their junior debt to force subordinated bondholders to accept less attractive terms. "Suc...