Currencies

The euro covered bond market shook off a volatile end to 2024 to rebound with a raft of exceptionally popular deals in 2025. Investors appeared eager to pile into euro covered bond books this year, propelling bid-to-cover ratios upwards and new issue premium downwards, writes Frank Jackman

Covered bond funders will have to weave their way through tight senior unsecured and wide SSA spreads in 2026 if they are to refinance the wave of redemptions that awaits them. One big question for the year ahead, discovers Frank Jackman, is whether issuers will be tempted to pay up for duration

Issuers had it almost all their own way in the European FIG market in 2025. Investor appetite for credit far outstripped supply, causing spreads to tighten along with the average new issue premium on syndicated benchmark-sized deals. Flynn Nicholls reports on the dynamics that shaped the primary market

The European FIG market rode through 2025 on high demand for credit, providing bank issuers, large and small, with extremely advantageous funding conditions. Although investors have also benefitted from strong secondary market performance, as Atanas Dinov reports, that equilibrium may change in 2026, with anticipation mounting that spreads will widen

The public sector bond market digested more than $900bn of benchmark syndications in the first 10 months of 2025, close to the amount raised the previous year. New issue premiums varied by currency, with the biggest annual change in the euro market, writes Sarah Ainsworth

Investment grade companies demonstrated just how much liquidity was sloshing around in the euro, dollar, sterling and Swiss franc markets with a string of large deals. But these bonds did not just stand out for the amount issued. Rather, they showed that there is not always a trade-off to be made between size and price

With a relentless flow of cash into credit markets this year, almost every borrower could be said to have done well. But some issuers stood out for their ability to establish new footholds in certain markets that have since paved the way for peers

The Australian dollar bond market’s growth has propelled it to be the third most important funding currency for some international bond issuers. Its ability to offer investor diversification and arbitrage funding is attracting an increasing number of issuers from spread-conscious SSAs to banks and companies seeking strategic capital, write Sarah Ainsworth and Atanas Dinov

Three new banks join facility, one drops out

Investors show demand for short-dated FRNs from FIG and corporate credits in private and public formats

German issuer expected to seize 2026's first window for fourth year in a row

Aroundtown and Toyota tap private markets as public supply winds down