ABN Amro

Argenta Spaarbank announced plans for a new non-preferred senior deal on Monday, as it looks to take advantage of the supportive tone set by other rare borrowers last week.

Take-up was higher than expected for the European Central Bank’s latest series of Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations on Thursday. But an overall allotment of €174bn still paled in comparison with the last round, as banks showed they already had plenty of excess liquidity on their balance sheets.

Shares in Knaus Tabbert, the German maker of caravans and motor homes, were almost flat in trading on Wednesday following the company’s €232m IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The deal was the first of two German IPOs this week.

Coventry Building Society struggled to build much momentum behind the sale of a new senior bond this week, as the sterling market proved especially vulnerable to new fears around Brexit.

Fitch cut the long-term issuer default ratings (IDRs) of ABN Amro and Rabobank this week, with a rise in risk-weighted assets having helped to push down the size of the banks’ subordinated bond buffers.

NatWest launched a new tender offer this week for four of its subordinated bonds, all of which are soon set to lose their value as regulatory capital.

Coventry Building Society was unable to tighten its pricing for a new senior bond in the sterling market on Monday, as UK credit spreads widened on the back of the latest Brexit developments.

Nationwide Building Society said this week that it was looking to reduce the size of 11 of its euro and sterling covered bonds through a tender offer, in an effort to optimise its funding and liquidity position.

The European Central Bank is overstepping the mark with its investment grade corporate bond buying and must start easing off, or it risks detaching the market from economic reality, market participants said this week. Mike Turner reports.

Commerzbank did not pay a premium to launch its new additional tier one (AT1) this week, as it found strong demand at the long end of the curve. The bank was returning to the market just three months after its last deal in the format.

KPN, the Dutch telecommunications company, made its first outing in the senior bond market for four years on Monday. One lead manager expected the trade to give the issuer’s curve a strong lift.

Royal Schiphol, the Dutch airport operator, brought a dual tranche conventional and green bond with a small to flat new issue premium on Tuesday. The issuer opted to make the longer 12 year tranche green, which bankers say is indicative of lengthening maturities in the typically mid-tenor corporate green bond market.