Euro

Unsecured bonds could become more expensive to issue, covered bonds cheaper

EU bonds perform, even after €30bn rise to annual issuance ceiling for 2026

Diverse mix of companies to get issuance going but will have to navigate Epiphany

Tight funding levels and an abundance of investor cash made for brisk MTN issuance in 2025. The story may change in 2026, with public market issuance named as one factor that could crowd out private placements. But a broadening Asian bid for MTNs offers hope for the market, writes Diana Bui

Record issuance volumes met insatiable investor appetite to lock in yields before rate cuts bite, resulting in tight pricing across bonds and sukuk, writes George Collard. An already healthy market shifted up a gear from September as order books swelled and issuance accelerated, especially of sukuk

Record euro issuance cost issuers slimmer new issue premiums than before as a wave of Reverse Yankee issuance, much of it to fund technology and artificial intelligence infrastructure, and a softer sterling market defined Europe’s investment grade corporate bond market in 2025, writes Diana Bui

A booming 2025 investment grade corporate bond market in Europe set a high bar as investors brace to pay higher premiums and shift to the belly of the curve in 2026. Meanwhile, capex, M&A and Reverse Yankees look set to keep the pipeline full, write Diana Bui and Frank Jackman

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