Danske Bank

Danske Bank has appointed Stephan Engels as chief financial officer, leaving the same post vacant at Commerzbank. The move comes as the Danish lender has been dealing with the fallout from a money laundering scandal, while its German counterpart has warned of difficult business conditions.

Österreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB), Austria’s export credit agency, will go on roadshow next week to present its recently established sustainability bond framework to European investors. An inaugural bond in the format is expected to follow.

Three new investment grade corporate bonds appeared in Europe on Friday, a slower pace than the frenetic one of Tuesday and Wednesday, but still adding €1.6bn to the already huge total of €15.5bn in the middle three days of this week.

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Demand for the Republic of Finland’s latest bond was high on Wednesday as it printed through the ECB deposit rate to sell “the most expensive syndication of all time”, according to a banker on the deal. The five year note came 29.9bp richer than Austria’s previous record holding deal, another five year note sold in June.

Kommunalbanken brought its green bond framework to the Swedish krona market for the first time last week to place its seventh green note, its first since August 2018. The move into the currency follows a wider trend of major SSA issuers funding in niche currencies as raising debt in core markets becomes harder, according to bankers.

Europe's bond market reopened for the autumn issuance season this week — but it is a new bond market. The summer's queasy bout of bearishness has pushed government bond yields to unprecedented lows and these are now for the first time being tested as a platform for private sector bond issuance.

Market participants expect more banks will now want to print Kangaroos after investors on a search for yield poured into UBS's additional tier one (AT1) deal on Tuesday. The syndication, which surprised those involved after it managed to shave 75bp off its initial pricing guidance and attract A$4bn ($2.71bn) of orders, suggested a market ripe for a deal spree.

KfW brought its revamped green framework to the Norwegian krone market to print a deal on Tuesday. Later that week, strong demand from domestic and international investors let the issuer increase the note to a record breaking size, printing the largest Nokkie green bond across any asset class.

Danske Bank beat the crowds to issue a new non-preferred senior bond in euros on Tuesday, showing other issuers that investors are more than happy to get involved in the right types of trades this summer.

Volumes are growing across the spectrum in the Scandinavian MTN markets, as issuers and bankers return from their summer holidays. Meanwhile, bankers are expecting Scandinavian investors to move further out along the credit curve in response to negative yields as dovish Nordic central bank tones could lead to a bullish Scandinavian market.

Analysts at Danske Bank have said that Moody's could raise Portugal's credit rating this week even, amid signs of a weakening European economy. Such a move would have a knock-on impact for the country's banking industry, which has shown clear progress in improving its asset quality.