How much euro bond issuance is too much ina day? Well, if this week is anything to go by there is still no definitive answer for financial institution bond investors swallowed everything thrown their way without problem.
Financial institutions have brought €18bn of unsecured and secured bonds to market since Tuesday, including covered deals from Lloyds and UniCredit, huge multi-tranche senior deals from national champions Barclays, ING, HSBC, and capital deals from ANZ and Société Générale.
Moreover, these deals were done at attractive spreads, even amid competition from corporate issuers.
ING Bank came to the euro senior market on Monday alongside a packed corporate pipeline that included €9bn from Alphabet.
There was said to be internal discussion among ING's syndicate about whether to go head-to-head with the US tech titan in the primary market. The lead managers decided to press on, confident the two deals could co-exist.
They were right. The deal attracted €8.7bn of final orders across three tranches, even while Barclays and Alphabet were in the market at the same time.
The question for FIG borrowers is simple: if Alphabet printing the fourth largest corporate euro deal on record cannot dent the bid for bank paper, what can? Both ING's and Alphabet's deals cleared in the same session, the market absorbing them without complaint.
The €18bn of FIG bonds priced this week, across every asset class and alongside a jumbo deal from a hyperscaler, makes the case plain. Even though the war in the Middle East remains unresolved and the ECB is signalling a future rate increase, execution risk is low. Now is the moment to move, before the market decides otherwise.