This is the October edition of THE TREASURY HUB Banking and Treasury Markets Bulletin. 2020 has been a unique year for our country and society as a whole, but it has also had significant repercussions for business, banking and financial markets to date.

On the currency front, the USD settled down to a range of around EUR/USD1.175 having materially weakened over the course of the summer. From an investment perspective, while all three equity indices that we track (ISEQ, FTSE and DOW) are still down in the year, the DOW is close to recovering to where it was at the start of 2020. On the Brexit front, talks are set to continue after insufficient progress was made in negotiations, thereby passing the mid-November deadline.

Both sides continue to insist that a deal is possible. It remains to be seen whether we are witnessing the move to a hard Brexit or political statements being made for political purposes ahead of some level of compromise. What is clear is that a material number of Irish food companies remain very exposed to a hard Brexit with likely severe consequences for their profitability should that scenario materialise.

Please get in touch with our Corporate Finance team if we can be of any assistance.

The Treasury Hub - Banking and Treasury Report October 2020 can be downloaded here.

For any queries relating to this newsletter, please contact Chris Ball, Partner.