The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition the group that represents big bond investors is upset with the way Royal Bank of Canada sold its $1-billion debt offering. The Globe's Tim Kiladze writes in early July, RBC became the first Canadian bank to sell bonds that can be treated as non-viability contingent capital (NVCC), where bond investors can quickly become measly shareholders. Analysts expected banks to wait until the Department of Finance released rules on what is known as "bail-in debt." These regulations are expected to mirror the NVCC rules, which allow certain types of bonds to be converted into equity in the event of a crisis, but they would apply specifically to senior bank debt that does not count toward capital requirements. NVCC debt does, however, making the latter more advantageous for banks to sell. Because these rules are not finalized, institutional investors have been worried about scooping up NVCC issues, because they are not sure how it will all shake out. Fixed-income investors pride themselves on being higher in the capital structure, so that in the event of a bankruptcy they get first dibs on assets; the new conversion rules would wipe out this special status.