Australian dollar

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp sold its largest every Australian dollar deal on Tuesday, scooping up A$2.4bn ($1.6bn) of senior unsecured paper through its Sydney branch.

A pair of foreign banks mandated senior unsecured Australian dollar transactions on Monday: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp is out with initial price thoughts through its Sydney branch, while the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is preparing a Kangaroo benchmark.

The International Finance Corp returned to the Australian dollar bond market to fund its response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, while at the end of last week BNG capped the strongest month for SSA Kangaroo deals for over nine months.

Banks are bounding back into the Kangaroo market. On Wednesday, BNP Paribas jumped in to sell the first syndicated Australian dollar senior non-preferred deal since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, later that day the Bank of Nova Scotia announced plans to join the fray with a mandate for a three year bail-inable deal.

A pair of French banks visited the five year point of the Kangaroo curve on Tuesday. BPCE raised A$650m of senior preferred paper, while BNP Paribas mandated for a senior non-preferred deal.

A quartet of SSAs borrowed a combined A$940m ($613.4m) into the Kangaroo market this week, spurring the SSA Aussie dollar market on to its best monthly volume in over nine months.

The European Investment Bank inaugurated its sustainability awareness bond (SAB) framework in Australian dollars on Tuesday, while on Wednesday NRW.Bank printed the largest SSA Kangaroo so far this year.

Rentenbank jumped into a quiet Kangaroo market on Thursday to print its first Australian dollar bond since August 2019.

Social bonds are proving to be a key part of SSAs fight against the coronavirus, with $10.6bn equivalent printed since the start of the pandemic. Having already tapped core currency markets last month, this week a pair of supranationals turned towards niche currencies to fund their response to the pandemic. With demand for the social format high, both bankers and funding officials are hopeful the new investor interest will stick around after the pandemic passes.

Asia’s sustainability-linked loan market has expanded further with a real estate investment trust raising funds linked to the global real estate sustainability benchmark (GRESB), a first for the region.

The recent fall in the price of oil is having a knock-on effect on non-core currency issuance. While oil dependent markets could take a hit as their currencies weaken, some net importers could benefit from a stronger currency and safe haven flows.

A window for Kangaroo issuance opened this week, as a positive move in the Australian dollar/euro basis swap helped rouse a slumbering market that had not seen a deal for a fortnight. In spite of unstable conditions, SSAs entered the market on Monday and Tuesday, with a trio of regular borrowers tapping six lines for a combined A$575m ($364m).