Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten

Ahead of an expected flood of issuance kicking off in the last week of August, here are the updated funding scores for selected European supranational and agency borrowers.

Euro funding SSAs printed £1.19bn of sterling commercial paper on Monday, as an attractive euro/sterling basis swap helped issuers add to what has already been a record breaking year for the currency.

A bevy of issuers looked to print dollar floaters on Wednesday and Thursday, as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s congressional testimonies on both days made markets too risky for issuers to attempt a fixed rate benchmark. But as Bernanke’s dovish testimony appeared to mollify markets, the era of floaters could come to an end next week.

Following an unexpectedly heavy week of issuance from European supranationals and agencies, here are the updated funding scores for selected borrowers in the category.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten is set to become the latest agency to price a dollar floater, having mandated a pair of banks to run a three year deal on Wednesday. BNG’s trade comes a day after the World Bank reopened the fixed rate market in the currency after a pause of more than a month.

The European Financial Stability Facility mandated three banks for a seven year issue on Tuesday afternoon. The initial price thoughts led bankers away from the deal to suspect the supranational was going for a large deal and could get €5bn away.

Kingdom of Spain astonished SSA market participants on Monday afternoon, when it hired six banks to run a 15 year euro syndication, less than a week after fellow peripheral sovereign Portugal’s bond yields shot north of 8% on fears of a government collapse. The deal came on the same day as Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG) announced a 10 year deal with bankers also expecting a deal from the EFSF.

Three borrowers are all contenders for summer benchmarks despite the volatility generated in the Portuguese government bond market this week following the resignation of two government ministers. The prospect of continuing supply after a volatile few weeks will come as encouraging news to market participants who in previous years have seen bad news on one peripheral eurozone sovereign shut down the entire SSA market.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG) may lead a small handful of issuers looking to print deals before investors pack their buckets and spades and head to the beach for the summer. The Dutch agency joins its compatriot Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (NWB) among the names that may well access public markets before August.

This week's funding scorecard focuses on some of Europe's key supranational and agency borrowers. Forthcoming editions will bring updates from other French, German, Spanish and Scandinavian names.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten is looking to diversify its short term funding sources with a new US commercial paper programme, the agency told SSA Markets this week.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten priced a €1.25bn five year note on Tuesday at a level that skimmed its curve, according to one of the leads.