A must-read in FT Alphaville on the Laos Eurobond transparency clause, the disclosed negative pledge concern, and a drop-in to a tricky Suriname transparency constraint as well!

Debt offices in LICs spend significant time on filling Excels rather than core duties. Debt reconciliation is labor-intensive. Developing an IT platform for secure, real-time data exchange between creditors and borrowers would be a major step toward "radical" debt transparency

"Sources said governments and advisors underestimated how hard it would be to unpick, determining who holds it [private sovereign debt], on what terms and whether there was collateral which can put one borrower ahead in the queue ... " #WBGMeetings

Ethiopia / announcement of unsuccessful discussions with Eurobond holders. From the statement (via regulatory announcement to Irish Stock Exchange), the govt's final proposal for a value recovery instrument.

Angola new Eurobond yields (info via the pricing supplement). $1bn on the 2031, 9.25%; $0.75bn on the 2038, 10.125%.

Nice summary of recent restructurings. Interesting that the Common Framework turned out to be NPV negative for Chad, given the accelerated repayment of the Glencore loan

🚨NEW @IMFNews PAPER: A Stocktaking of The Current International Architecture for Resolving Sovereign Debt Involving Private Sector Creditors https://t.co/2SfB7sBAkR. Short 🧵 on the key takeaways 1/x

EMs face tough times in formulating medium-term debt strategies, due to market volatility and uncertain official funding. The ABP is now key for communicating with investors and policymakers. Check out our new manual & tool to help DMOs build better ABPs.

Dollar-strapped Bolivia is relying on increasingly sophisticated operations to raise hard currency that it can use to pay its foreign debt

In 2025: Angola, Senegal, now Colombia. Total Return Swaps (in various currencies) are increasingly used by EMs to address their liquidity challenges

Debt swaps have often been assessed using inconsistent metrics, leading to unclear evaluations of their financial benefits. To address this, we’ve developed a streamlined online tool that introduces clarity through standardized, transparent indicators:

It’s always puzzling to see oversubscription claims presented without any reference to pricing. A better metric would reflect also bidding price dispersion or remove outliers..

The Paris Club’s annual update is very commendable, but I’ve always found it puzzling as its figures often diverge from those in DSAs or country-reports. This only reinforces the case for an automated creditor/borrower reconciliation platform:

📍The second major outcome of the Sevilla Conference: a Global Hub for Debt Swaps, launched with the World Bank to strengthen development finance. The Hub will scale up debt swaps for high-impact projects, connecting key actors and delivering customized technical support.

📢New deep-dive paper on China’s BRI lending (Georgetown/AidData/Kiel). We study "How China Collateralizes" its overseas loans — not with ports/infrastructure, but with cash in Chinese bank accounts. The techniques and volumes are striking.🧵Paper here: https://t.co/1gdbQFcUjb

Report co-authored with David Mihalyi (bsky) with contributions from @anirudhsb and @RDRockafellow

🛠️ What’s needed? · Loan-level reporting · Legal reforms for mandatory disclosure · Increased oversight, especially for non-conventional debt · Technical assistance to DMOs, based on clear metrics and incentives · IT solutions for data digitalization and reconciliation 👇10/10

Debt transparency is crucial in debt restructurings 📜Transparency-positive covenants included in some restructured bond contracts (Ghana, Sri Lanka) ⚠️Too many "silent" restructurings with select creditors. 📢Comprehensive restructurings can be further leveraged 9/10

Domestic debt is often underreported: 🟢Marketable debt: well-documented 🟡Non-marketable debt: inconsistently recorded 🔴Arrears (typically securitized): scarcely monitored Certain instruments, such as treasury advances, often evade national statistics 8/10

Private placements are surging (e.g., Cameroon, Gabon, Senegal, etc.). They offer speed & flexibility—but less data disclosure. Despite that, they may be eligible to indexes as standard Eurobonds 7/10