ABN Amro

Lenders to Wirecard, the embattled German payments company, will have to decide whether to call in its €1.75bn syndicated loan, after its auditor EY refused to sign off its 2019 accounts, which the company announced on Thursday, sending its share price into a spiral. Markus Braun, the company's CEO, resigned on Friday.

Five banks and insurers from across Europe issued senior debt this week, including two in green bond format, as they tried to find opportunities in a choppy market. Athene Global Funding, Banco de Sabadell, Virgin Money, Santander and Hypo Noe all priced deals.

Green bonds made up the majority of the supply in the euro bank bond market on Thursday, with Hypo Noe and Santander capitalising on strong demand for the asset class.

European banks joined a flurry of US corporates in the dollar bond market this week, capitalising on favourable conditions to issue deals in large sizes and at negative new issue premiums.

Banco de Sabadell proved very popular with a short-dated euro senior deal this week, after issuing in an unusual three year non-call two maturity structure.

AIB Group priced a €625m additional tier one (AT1) bond in euros this week, following several volatile days of trading for the asset class. The deal surpassed expectations in terms of size and pricing, having been run along with a tender offer for one of the Irish lender’s existing AT1s.

Sentiment is deteriorating in the financial institutions bond market amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections. Issuers are now expected to take a back seat until credit spreads show more signs of stability.

Weaker trading conditions have done little to shake expectations for a new wave of additional tier one (AT1) supply, writes Tyler Davies, with three banks having reopened the market in emphatic fashion this week, issuing €3.1bn-equivalent of debt into more than €20bn of demand.

Market participants expect European banks to take a large chunk of funding through the European Central Bank’s Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO III) programme, hitting covered bond supply levels. But issuance in other asset classes should remain unaffected as banks follow through with their funding plans.

Banks are likely to consider unusual issuance windows this year given the disruption caused by the coronavirus crisis. They could even be hard at work during the summer months, according to deal arrangers.

Enexis, the Dutch electricity and gas grid and energy services group, issued its debut green bond on Wednesday and printed the €500m issue through its secondary curve, as a strong rally in utility debt pushes demand into regulated names.

ABN Amro and Commerzbank have proven that the additional tier one (AT1) market is wide open for business, after they clocked up more than €17bn of combined demand for their two new deals on Monday.