Over the past 50 years, the Latin American and Caribbean region has experienced at least 50 sovereign debt crises and sovereign debt restructurings. Ecuador's 2020 debt restriction has been one of the fastest attempts due to the Ecuadorian government's very friendly stance and liquidity-driven debt reprofiling.
An important parameter for sovereign bonds that do not leave the indices and have large debt levels outstanding is to ensure liquidity is not impaired during the restructuring process. Issuing a unilateral proposal without productive bondholder engagement is a risky strategy and we hope a lot more countries begin to follow Ecuador’s lead.