IGNIS Asset Management bonds chief Chris Bowie has secured top spot in The Herald's table of top performing managers working for Scottish houses after playing a deft hand with banking paper in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
And after benefiting from a rebound in the value in banking stock as the credit crunch receded, he sold most of his holdings and warned that there is more trouble looming for resurgent financial markets.
He said: "Everyone has got a little bit carried away."
Mr Bowie, head of credit at Ignis and manager of its corporate bond fund, was one of many investors left sitting with a fistful of Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland debt when the music stopped in the banking crisis in 2008.
"In 2008 we were overweight banks and we paid the penalty for that," he said.
But instead of participating in the debt exchanges that came as the banks sought to regroup, he held onto the paper and participated in the rally of 2009 before largely exiting most of the positions later that year and in the first half of 2010.
Investors have been picking up higher risk assets since the European Central Bank Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) scheme injected €1 trillion (£824 billion) into the banking system just before Christmas.
But Mr Bowie is sceptical about its effectiveness.
"It kicked the can further down the road," he said.
Pumping more liquidity into the system has not dealt with fundamental problems of solvency, he believes.
"If anything we have sold down a bit more risk," he said.
He added: "There is a risk there is another LTRO package but things have to get worse before that comes into play.
"We still think things will get worse before they get better."
Mr Bowie, who is rated AAA by Citywire, remains deeply sceptical about banking paper, although he holds Asian-focused Standard Chartered and HSBC plus "a bit of Barclays".
He said: "There is a fair price for risk. For me they (banks) have to rebuild their capital; they are not well capitalised.
"They just cannot extend credit on favourable terms to SMEs. That tells you they are in trouble."
Mr Bowie, who was born in Aberdeen, was previously Glasgow-based but moved to London with other members of Ignis's corporate bond team last year.
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