Markets Should Be Sh*tting Themselves Over Brexit Risk: BlackRock

Wake up, people!
Author:
Updated:
Original:

As you've more than likely heard (many, many times), in a fortnight, our friends across the pond will vote to leave the European Union or note. One person who has heard but is worried everyone else doesn't have their hearing aids turned on is Owen Murfin, because if y'all did you'd be FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW instead of sitting pretty casually wondering what you'll have for lunch.

Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg

Murfin, co-lead manager for global bond strategies at Blackrock, said that markets appear to be treating the possibility of Brexit as a local event rather than a globally systemic risk. "There might be a little bit too much complacency. I would think that Brexit probably should be seen, in the context of the near term, as a bigger deal," Murfin told reporters at the firm's fixed-income outlook briefing in London.

Markets may be too complacent over Brexit risk, BlackRock says [Reuters]

Related

News

At Some Point In The Future, BlackRock Might Sue Over Libor Manipulation

Or it might not. No one can say at this time. Charlie Gasparino reports: BlackRock has $240 billion in money market assets, much of which is priced off of Libor. Thus even artificially depressing Libor a bit could mean that the firm’s customers missed out on billions upon billions in investment returns. A BlackRock spokeswoman told FOX Business: “We are closely following the investigations as well as related litigation to assess the full implications and possible impact these events may have had on our clients and the cash markets. The implications of the various investigations and litigation are complex and it will be some time before greater clarity emerges.” Indeed, people inside BlackRock say assessing damages won’t be easy. First it’s unclear just how much the manipulation cost fund investors since the evidence so far shows that banks like Barclays only depressed their Libor submissions during certain periods of time, particularly during the financial crisis, when they didn’t want to alert investors that they were being charged higher interest rates to borrow money. BlackRock Mulls Legal Action Amid Libor Scandal [FBN]