Euro

Bank of China hit Asia's debt market hard on Tuesday, unleashing a huge deal spanning four currencies and six tranches. The $3.1bn-equivalent deal was designed to make a statement to the market that it should not forget China’s Belt and Road initiative, DCM bankers said. Morgan Davis and Addison Gong report.

The European Parliament agreed on Tuesday to fast-track its work on how to bring in IFRS 9 accounting, following calls from the 28 European member states. European authorities aim to finish their work before January 2018, in order to avoid a ‘cliff effect’ on bank capital.

The slightly softer tone in the Asian markets on Tuesday did not deter issuers from flocking to the debt market, with as many as eight borrowers bagging new bonds. And the momentum continued on Wednesday, with a handful of firms opening their transactions.

Wobbles in eurozone government bond secondaries this week failed to deter a strong showing from a pair of public sector issuers in primary on Tuesday. Unédic found strong demand and tightened from guidance on its longest dated benchmark ever, while Austria broke a series of records with a 10 year euro benchmark.

Once France broke international records for sovereign defaults, thanks to wars, money printing and dodgy liability management.

The pace of borrowing has slackened for public sector borrowers as Easter approaches but a few are still out hunting for second quarter funding.

A trio of names have crowded into the investment grade corporate market on Tuesday, though France’s Arkema is expected to bring the only trade in benchmark size as volumes tail off heading into the Easter break. Meanwhile, Stada's €5.3bn buyout looks to be an early contender for deal of the year in leveraged finance.

Bank of China launched its multi-currency, multi-tranche transaction on Tuesday morning, as Citic Securities also opened books for two tranches of dollar notes.

Unédic and Austria have announced that they will sell euro benchmarks at the long end of the curve on Tuesday.

Eurozone quantitative easing increases bond prices in the inter-dealer market and is also “likely” to hit liquidity, according to research from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The findings also suggest that timing QE asset purchases depending on market conditions could benefit the policy as a whole.

Bank of China, CCB Life Insurance and Citic Securities kicked off investor meetings and calls this week, in pursuit of Reg S deals.

The public sector primary market has enjoyed one of its most sparkling weeks of the past few years, with deals printed across both the euro and dollar curves with great success. But under the surface, there is growing concern about the inevitable volatility that will come the SSA market’s way as central banks decide what to do with their quantitative easing programmes and the assets they have bought under those programmes. Craig McGlashan and Lewis McLellan report.