Commerzbank

ABN Amro issued its third 15 year covered bond in three years on Wednesday and, in a surprise late addition, tacked on a sub-benchmark 20 year.

DNB Boligkreditt got the Nordic covered bond market off to a blistering start on Wednesday with a €2bn five year deal that leads were able to tighten by 5bp from initial guidance.

In the looking-glass world of Swiss franc bonds, unrated companies and Austrian banks have issued at negative yields, writes Silas Brown. Starved of return, Swiss investors will look at a broader range of foreign and even high yield paper than ever before.

The Swiss market shed roughly Sfr3bn ($2.93bn) of foreign issuance this year from last year. Expensive basis swaps and cheap funding for investment grade borrowers in euros and dollars drew foreign issuers away. But, if global rates rise next year, the foreign borrowers will return, Swiss bankers say.

The holiday season kicked off at the Loan Syndicate Managers’ Forum’s carol concert in London last week and, as usual, Canon David Parrott delighted the crowd with another lively sermon — though one banker risked life and limb by questioning the quality of the drinks served at the Commerzbank reception...

Four European lenders have turned down a $2bn loan for National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), while local banks are starting to return to secondary markets for the first time in a year — signs that the Middle Eastern loan market could see a different set of banks driving it in 2017. Elly Whittaker reports.

Fitch has hired the former head of loan capital markets within Commerzbank’s leveraged finance team, who joins the agency’s corporate rating operation.

Groupe SEB has set a new record for a French borrower tapping the booming Schuldschein market, raising a whopping €800m to help it buy a German company.

A busy weekend for Chinese authorities as seven new currencies were named to be traded directly with the renminbi, the dollar fix breaks 6.9 again on Monday, and a clearing bank is appointed in Dubai.

Bank Negara Indonesia is wrapping up a $750m borrowing with nine mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, returning to the loan market after a two year break. As liquidity is still abundant, the borrower is raising its biggest syndicated deal, with bankers saying that government backed names from the country will remain popular. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Banca Monte dei Paschi’s shares leapt 7% on Wednesday morning, on growing hopes that a way will be found for the Italian state to strengthen its balance sheet, enabling it to achieve a €5bn capital raising demanded by the European Central Bank and avoid a bail-in.

Nine banks have banded together to arrange a $750m dual tranche facility for Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).