Belgium

Two corporate bond issuers from opposite ends of the ratings spectrum found similar success with new bonds on Wednesday. The seven and eight year tenors found favour with investors looking to put new cash inflows to work.

Vittoria Assicurazioni and P&V Assurances went ahead with very similar debut deals on Wednesday. But the trades enjoyed contrasting levels of success, with Vittoria the only one able to attract a substantial amount of oversubscription.

The State of North Rhine-Westphalia is set to bring its longest ever euro benchmark, as public sector borrowers line up trades across the currency’s curve.

Investors with a green mandate flocked to KBC Bank’s first green senior unsecured transaction, which was more than three times subscribed and priced flat to its curve.

European member states and the EU Parliament will soon begin difficult talks to decide the length of an additional clearing exemption for pension funds.

NN Bank paid a generous premium this week to issue the first Dutch conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond of 2018. The deal emerged at the same time as Belfius Bank returned to the covered bond market with a 10 year.

Larry Thompson, vice-chairman of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, on Tuesday suggested that populist rhetoric in the US might be overshadowing President Trump's strong choices of leaders in independent financial oversight agencies.

Banks have called for more regulation to create a global protocol to address cyber security attacks.

The impasse between European and US regulators on the mutual recognition of each other’s clearing supervision regimes shows no sign of a breakthrough, as representatives from both authorities clashed at the Institute of International Finance spring membership meeting in Brussels this week.

Covered bond deals issued in the five to seven year part of the curve on Wednesday by ING Belgium, Berlin Hyp (BHH) and The Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (FCDQ) were all well received and stood in stark contrast to a 10 year from Nationwide.

ING Belgium has mandated leads for its first covered bond deal since September 2015 and, after being 150 years in operation, Berlin Hyp has announced plans for a ‘jubilee’ transaction in the form of a mortgage backed five year.

The Covered Bond Investor Council (CBIC) has responded to the European Commission’s (EC) proposed covered bond directive, requesting a more precise definition of eligible assets among a number of other recommendations.