Sovereign debt meaning

STOP PRESS: Short Selling Regulations 2025 SI 2025/29 was made and published on 13 January 2025, together with an Explanatory Memorandum. This instrument replaces the assimilated regime and establishes a new statutory framework for UK short selling, creating designated activities and granting the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rulemaking powers for those activities, plus powers to intervene in exceptional situations. It reiterates that firms must notify the FCA when net short positions exceed 0.2% of issued share capital; while HM Treasury keeps the ability to adjust this level, the FCA may mandate notifications at a different threshold in exceptional circumstances. Some provisions took effect on 14 January 2025, with the remainder commencing on the date the revocation of the UK Short Selling Regulation takes effect under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. For a summary of the background to the new UK regime, see Practice Note: The UK Short Selling Regulation [Archived]. Regulation (EU) 236/2012 (the EU Short Selling Regulation) applies in the EU. In the UK, the assimilated...

This checklist sets out the reporting obligations under the UK’s new short selling regime. For more detail, see Practice Note: The new UK short selling regime. Background The Short Selling Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/29) replace the assimilated UK Short Selling Regulation and introduce a new statutory framework for regulating short selling in the UK. The regime: Defines designated activities for short selling within FSMA 2000 Confers broad rule-making powers on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Maintains core transparency obligations while giving the FCA greater flexibility Equips the FCA with intervention powers in exceptional circumstances The FCA is consulting on proposed rules and guidance, with a new short selling sourcebook expected in April 2026. When does the UK short selling regime apply? It applies to market participants engaging in short selling of shares admitted to trading or traded on a UK trading venue, and to short selling of UK sovereign debt, associated credit default swaps (CDS) and related...

In this issue: Enforcing security and property insolvency Forfeiture Easements and covenants Disputes and remedies Residential tenancies No Weekly Highlights on 24 April 2025 Additional Property Disputes updates LexTalk®Property Disputes: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q&As Enforcing security and property insolvency The treatment of principal secured debt under a mental health crisis moratorium (Seculink Ltd v Forbes) In Seculink Ltd v Forbes [2025] EWHC 524 (Ch), the High Court explained how the principal amount of a secured debt is dealt with during a mental health crisis moratorium (MHCM) under the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, SI 2020/1311. The court confirmed that the principal of a secured debt does not constitute a ‘qualifying debt’ for the purposes of the Regulations, meaning secured creditors may enforce recovery of...

In this issue: Security Guarantees Real estate finance Sustainable finance Debt capital markets Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Useful information Security Companies House announces WebFiling account access to move to GOV.UK One Login from 13 October 2025 Companies House has confirmed that, from 13 October 2025, customers must use GOV.UK One Login to enter their WebFiling accounts. Existing WebFiling profiles need to be linked to a GOV.UK One Login, and each WebFiling account can be connected to only a single One Login. Where access is shared, each individual must set up their own GOV.UK One Login with a distinct email address. The platform introduces stronger protection through two-factor authentication and will, in time, supersede all other GOV.UK sign-in options, including Government Gateway. To get ready, users should refresh their email details and create their GOV.UK One Login well before the October 2025 cut-off. See: LNB News 27/08/2025 17. Source: Access to Companies...

Sterling-linked gilt yields fell for a second straight day as investors rotated out of shares and into sovereign debt or gold, following the US government’s 2 April 2025 declaration of sweeping tariff hikes. When bond prices climb, yields contract. The UK’s defined benefit pension schemes hold substantial gilts, and the steady rise in yields over the past five years has produced unprecedented improvements in funding for retirement plans, underpinned by higher interest income from their bond portfolios. By the morning of 4 April 2025, the ten-year gilt yield had slipped to 4.35%, from 4.48% a week earlier, amid continuing fallout across financial markets. Even so, specialists said schemes have probably allowed for those shifts within their investment strategies...

What are investment-grade, high yield and crossover bonds? Investment grade (IG) bonds are debt instruments that hold an IG credit rating: BBB and above on the S&P and Fitch scales, and Baa3 and above on the Moody’s scale (for further detail on credit ratings, see Practice Note: Credit ratings). IG issuers are usually sizeable blue‑chip corporates—well‑known, well‑established and well‑capitalised—and are often companies with shares listed on a major stock exchange. Aside from sovereign bonds of developed markets, IG securities are widely regarded as among the safest income‑generating investments. As a consequence of this perceived safety, IG bonds tend to offer lower yields than high yield (HY) bonds. Many institutional investors and pension schemes operate policies and mandates that constrain their bond holdings to assets with, on average, lower default risk, such as IG instruments or government obligations. In broad terms, HY bonds encompass all bonds from issuers rated below IG. HY issuers may include public companies that lack (or previously had but later lost) an IG rating, private companies...

Role The role of credit rating agents (CRAs) is to deliver an independent, analytical view of the likelihood of payment default, by assessing multiple factors that guide investors on whether to commit to specific securities. Capital market investors are highly sensitive to risk, and some are constrained by their internal constitutional documents from investing in lower grade instruments. As a rule, the greater the investment risk, the higher the return (interest/coupon) demanded by investors. Ratings may apply to both the company issuing the instruments and the instruments themselves. An issuer’s debt can be rated apart from the issuer, for example where the issuer is a special purpose vehicle created solely for the issuance, or where the debt benefits from credit enhancements (eg a guarantee) that lift it above the issuer’s own standing rating. For example, the following can be rated: the issuer senior debt/syndicated loans medium term notes (MTNs) commercial paper (CP) fixed income securities sovereign debt residential mortgage...

ARCHIVED : This Practice Note has been archived and is no longer maintained. STOP PRESS: The Short Selling Regulations 2025 were made and published on 13 January 2025, together with an explanatory memorandum. These regulations replace the assimilated UK Short Selling Regulation and introduce a new legislative framework governing short selling in the UK, defining designated activities and empowering the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to set rules for those activities, alongside powers to act in exceptional circumstances. Certain parts commenced on 14 January 2025, with the remainder starting on the date the revocation of the UK Short Selling Regulation takes effect under FSMA 2023. The UK’s new regime removes obligations on investors when entering short positions in sovereign debt or sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) and the linked reporting requirements, while keeping sovereign debt and sovereign CDS within the FCA’s emergency intervention powers on short selling...