The German bank shocked bond and equity investors – and raised fears about its own capital strength – on Wednesday when it became the first big bank to say it would not repay the €1bn ($1.42bn) bond as expected in January.
The move makes it more likely that other banks will not repay their own extendable so-called hybrid-capital bonds. Such instruments helped banks expand their balance sheets before the financial crisis and have played an important role in shoring them up since.
“We are treating this issue very seriously and are extremely disappointed with Deutsche Bank,” Richard Thomson, of Henderson Global Investors, said. “They consistently led us to believe that these deals would be called and they led us to believe that it was not an economic issue but a reputational issue.