Belgian Sovereign

The European Financial Stability Facility and the Province of Quebec mandated banks for new euro benchmarks on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of a highly successful 10 year deal from the Kingdom of Belgium. The Kingdom’s relatively high yields compared to other non-peripheral eurozone issuers helped to boost demand for the trade, according to bankers close to the deal.

Belgium has hired banks to run a long-dated syndication this week, it announced on Monday morning, while the EFSF is expected to pick a maturity between five and 10 years when it mandates for its first benchmark of the year later this week.

Cities and municipalities from Flanders are likely to follow the success of their first jointly guaranteed bond next year with further deals, according to syndicate bankers. The debut bond came a day before the Belgian sovereign announced its funding plans for 2014 on Tuesday.

The end of November finds almost every sovereign in the scorecard more than 90% funded for the year. Italy's cause was helped in no small part by a bumper €22.3bn domestic inflation linked bond at the start of the month. The UK - with a funding year running from April March - is also well on track with 70% of its programme completed.

The sovereign funding scorecard expands beyond Europe this month with the addition of Japan. The country has a whopping ¥156.8tr (€1.2tr) target this year but is well on track having raised ¥136.2tr so far.

Austria, Belgium, Finland and the UK were among the European sovereigns to add to their funding totals with benchmark deals this month.

As European sovereigns gear up for a busy period of auctions in late August and September, here are the latest funding figures for selected issuers.

France, Germany and Spain held well received auctions of medium to long term debt this week. Here is a round-up of key European sovereigns' funding figures.

Province of Ontario and KfW mandated banks for dollar benchmark on Monday afternoon. If the deals are met with a strong response, they could encourage other issuers to look to sell dollar issues next week.

Belgian bond yields spiked sharply and short term French and Germany yields jumped at auction on Monday, a trend that is likely to affect other eurozone sovereigns preparing for a busy week of issuance in volatile trading conditions.

This week's funding scorecard focuses on some of Europe's key sovereigns. Next week's scorecard will offer an update on Spanish regions and gencies.

Belgium took a flexible approach to funding this week, printing a pair of privately placed callable notes — a rare structure for a sovereign issuer.