Barclays

A number of Chinese real estate companies kicked off their refinancing for 2020 on Monday, with higher rated issuers tapping longer-dated bonds and the weaker names actively engaging in liability management.

The Export-Import Bank of India clinched $1bn from a 10 year bond on Monday, riding on investor enthusiasm for deals from the country.

The pipeline is starting to fill in the public sector bond market with the European Investment Bank and Kommunalbanken set to bring dollar deals and KfW preparing its first euro benchmark of the year. More deals — including the first sovereign syndication of the year— are set to follow this week.

Asian bond issuers went full speed ahead with their fundraising plans on Monday, launching new deals ahead of Chinese New Year holidays at the end of the month.

The European Investment Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank amassed strong demand from investors to kick off their funding programmes for the year on Friday, with the former receiving the biggest ever order book in the sterling supranational and agency bond market, according to the leads.

The Federal State of Lower Saxony sold the first euro public sector benchmark of 2020 with a well received 10 year deal on Thursday. Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank is keeping to tradition of beginning its benchmark funding for the year in sterling.

The Bank of England said it will increase the countercyclical buffer by 100bp for UK banks after disclosing the results of its latest stress test this week. As the sector performed well in the test, the new capital requirements are being interpreted as a ‘Brexit buffer’ to help institutions withstand the risk of economic turmoil at the end of 2020.

Royal Dutch Shell is considering releasing the detailed technical terms it has used on its $10bn revolving credit facility linked to the Secured Overnight Funding Rate (Sofr), to help the market with the transition to new interest rate benchmarks.

Covered bonds performed well in 2019, but yields finished in negative territory and spreads ended at their tightest for the year. The implication is that, despite higher than expected ECB covered bond purchases and a renewal of its ultra-cheap TLTRO facility, investors will struggle to match 2019’s returns in 2020, writes Bill Thornhill.

European banks are about as close as they can be to having clarity on their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). Now it’s up to them to figure out what impact the new bond standard will have on their funding plans, annual profits and business models. Tyler Davies reports

European banks no longer really have to think about building up layers of additional tier one debt. All of the focus has shifted to managing and refreshing this capital layer, and taking full advantage of a ferocious hunt for yield. Tyler Davies reports

Banks are pushing out the last of this year’s equity block trades and there could even be room for more supply next week, if the UK general election delivers a market friendly result.