Currencies

Swiss investors, who have shunned Austrian bank bonds for three years, have suddenly changed their minds and bought three deals in the last few weeks, with Bawag PSK the latest. An end to the wrangling over the resolution of Hypo Alpe Adria has been helpful, writes Silas Brown.

It was all going so well for Italy. Its entry to the 50 year bond club on Tuesday pulled in a monstrous €18.5bn of orders. But almost immediately the bond became tradeable, the market frothed with talk of the European Central Bank tapering QE, sending Eurozone periphery bonds into a tailspin to remind everyone just how much markets are in the grip of central bank policy. Lewis McLellan reports.

Auckland Council has selected a pair of banks to arrange a roadshow for a bond denominated in either euros or sterling.

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French agency Société de Financement Local will launch on Tuesday its first ever syndication.

The UK government has lent its voice to the growing current of international opinion that expansive monetary policy has gone far enough, and may even be harming growth. Britain is set to embark on a fiscal stimulus, likely to be welcomed by financial markets.

Kemi Adeosun, the finance minister of Nigeria, has attacked the “hypocrisy” of Western governments in stopping developing countries accessing development bank finance for coal power.

The Inter-American Development Bank, a Canadian sub-sovereign and two Danish agencies offered chunky issuance to the Kangaroo market this week. The SSAs took advantage of Asian accounts looking to work their cash at the 10 year part of the Australian dollar curve.

The Canadian province of Quebec added a 10th tap to its May 2026 Kangaroo line on Wednesday. The lead praised the borrower's swift execution of Kangaroo taps at the longer end of the curve.

Argentina took a further step in its reintegration to global markets on Wednesday, selling €2.5bn of euro-denominated bonds for the first time in 15 years.

Bawag PSK offered a Sfr175m five year note to yield hungry Swiss investors on Wednesday, becoming the third Austrian bank to offer short dated, but positive yielding bonds to Swiss investors in the last few weeks.

Just a week after its first dollar denominated benchmark, SNCF Réseau has announced that it will issue its first green bond.