Angelo Proni - MTS Group Angelo Proni is currently head of new and domestic markets for the MTS Group and is chairman of the board for MTS France, as well as a member of the boards of MTS Germany, MTS Associated Markets (Belgium, Finland and Denmark) and MTS CeTO (Poland). He joined MTS in early 1999 and has held a series of positions. Enrique Ezquerra - Spanish Treasury Enrique Ezquerra has worked for the Spanish Treasury since 1999, both in financial regulation and in the public debt departmen

The sovereign market faced two main challenges this year: a growth in its own capacity to raise ever larger amounts of debt, and the additional competition posed by the government guaranteed bank sector. The participants at this year's IFR Sovereign Roundtable were generally in agreement that neither of these had significantly changed how national debt offices go about their everyday role of financing their budget deficits. The means by which financings have been achieved have, nevertheless, had

The sovereign market faced two main challenges this year: a growth in its own capacity to raise ever larger amounts of debt, and the additional competition posed by the government guaranteed bank sector. The participants at this year's IFR Sovereign Roundtable were generally in agreement that neither of these had significantly changed how national debt offices go about their everyday role of financing their budget deficits. The means by which financings have been achieved have, nevertheless, had

IFR: How do you think we stand with regard to risk appetite? Ezquerra: We were talking about how to measure liquidity. Now it is: how do you measure risk appetite? That is even more difficult! There have been a number of surveys saying that risk appetite is back to top levels, but then you think: what is risk appetite? And it seems that risk appetite is buying Greece at 200bp over swaps or ourselves at 80bp over Bunds and then saying: I’ll take more of that. That is not real risk appetite, frank

IFR: What is the view on the liquidity situation at the moment from the investor side? Grodzki: We are not discontent with the current liquidity situation in government bonds. What we do worry about is the corporate market. We are concerned about certain changes in bank capital regulations which are currently being discussed but yet to be implemented. That could force a couple of the banks to hold much higher capital levels to support trading books, which would undermine liquidity and corporate

IFR: How do you think the creation of the sovereign-backed bank asset class has affected borrowing in the capital markets since its inception late last year? What funding options are being considered by issuers in response to this – and higher sovereign funding needs? Zeina Bignier (SG CIB): The creation of GGBs (government-guaranteed bonds) has not really hampered primary market activity. The increase in sovereign supply has largely been offset by the decrease of senior debt in the financial se