Barclays in £600m bond swap
Barclays is issuing at least another £600m of convertible bonds, or cocos, to boost its capital position. The bank is exchanging the new instruments for old bonds issued before the EU’s latest rules on capital buffers, CRD4, came into force. The bank has already issued £2bn of the instruments. Cocos boost a bank’s capital position if it runs into trouble, for instance by wiping out investors when the bank’s capital buffer falls below seven per cent.