Americas

Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) respectively issued one of the shortest and longest covered bonds of 2015. BMO’s five year appealed to a wide audience enabling the borrower to issue a large €1.5bn deal. Though Caffil’s €500m 20 year appealed to a smaller audience, the very high quality investor base it appeals to bodes well for the deal’s long term performance.

Bank of Nova Scotia has returned to the covered bond market for a second time this week, mandating leads for the first Australian dollar covered bond deal of the year.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) became the third issuer to price a sterling-denominated floating rate covered bond this week, launching its inaugural transaction in the UK currency on Wednesday. The Canadian issuer matched the spread achieved by Barclays, which priced a deal on Monday, and in greater size and with a slightly longer duration than Scotiabank, which tapped a deal on Tuesday.

Scotiabank has tapped its three year sterling FRN for £300m, a day after Barclays issued a £1bn deal in the same maturity. A euro deal could be announced shortly, but bankers warn that the size of the new issue premium needed in euros will present a quandary.

National Bank of Canada has mandated leads for a roadshow starting next week.

Czech Raiffeisenbank opened books for the first publicly syndicated euro benchmark from the country on Wednesday and had attracted sufficient order interest at the guidance level to make a deal viable. At the same time, Toronto Dominion Bank mandated leads for its first Australian dollar benchmark.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) was set to price its third euro benchmark of the year, and its fourth covered bond benchmark across all currencies, on Tuesday. The €1.25bn tranche took advantage of space created by robust Eurosystem central bank demand at the short end. Responding to reverse enquiry, the issuer also priced a £250m three year floater on a book that was twice subscribed.

Toronto Dominion returned to the euro covered bond market for the second time this year, pricing the third seven year from an issuer outside the eurozone this week. The spread TD achieved reflected the importance of regulatory treatment, since better treatment allowed Nationwide to price tighter, and worse treatment forced Commonwealth Bank of Australia to price wider.

In an exclusive interview with Emerging Markets, Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda insisted the policies of Abenomics were working, not hurting, and defended the ways the world’s big four central banks were operating monetary policy

The principle is clear: shareholders and creditors should bear risk of bank failures. Working out how to achieve that is the difficult part.

Women's participation in the labour force still lags men's by 12% even in developed economies. In the MENA region it can be up to 50%. That is a wasted resource - and best practice examples show countries and companies that tackle the problem outperform

Although fast-growing economies such as China secured a deal four years ago to earn greater voting rights on the IMF, they are still waiting for approval by US Congress. They could finally be about to get their way