Carige and ING mandate, Westpac raises questions

Italy’s Banca Carige today announced the mandate for its first deal of the year. ING is taking IOI's for a Dutch five year, to be launched tomorrow. Bankers speculate that Westpac’s postponement of its inaugural euro benchmark on Tuesday may have been due to reasons other than those the bank and its lead managers gave. More mandates should follow in March but the yield back-up means long-end demand is not so robust.