Currencies

KfW finished off this year’s funding programme with a €2bn green bond tap on Thursday, bringing the outstanding to €6bn and making it the largest ever non-sovereign green bond line.

Société de Financement Local (SFIL) was over 5-1/2 times covered as it brought its long-awaited debut green bond to the market on Friday, allowing it to price well inside fair value.

French bank Société Générale made a triumphant return to the dollar market this week, with its first additional tier one (AT1) capital issue in the currency for more than two years.

Financial institutions jumped into action this week, as positive news on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine led to superlative funding conditions in the euro market.

French agency Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations finished its 2020 syndicated funding programme with a visit to the Swiss market this week, printing an extremely tight deal through the high quality domestic covered bond curve.

The euro SSA market was dominated by French issuers this week, with borrowers working swiftly to finish off their enlarged 2020 funding programmes once the EU had cleared the decks.

Unédic, the French unemployment agency, will look to complete its €15bn funding programme on Thursday, coming to market in the footsteps of the EU’s second outing.

Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust (OTFT) is preparing to issue its inaugural green bond under its new framework aligned to the International Capital Market Association’s Green Bond Principles.

World Bank hit the Kangaroo bond market this week, raising an impressive A$1.65bn ($1.2bn) across two tranches in its only syndication in the currency this year.

Unédic and Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) still have sizeable amounts of funding to raise before the end of the year and, with only a few weeks remaining, will look to issue after the EU clears the decks this week.

World Bank announced a dual tranche in Australian dollars on Monday — its first syndication in the currency in 2020.

Three banks launched new senior deals in euros on Monday, taking advantage of a jubilant tone in the market following Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. That sentiment received a further boost during the morning trading session when Pfizer and BioNTech revealed successful Covid-19 vaccine trials.