Europe

Two European SSAs are tapping the short end of the dollar curve with just over a month to go before Thanksgiving — the traditional time for turkeys and the winding down of dollar issuance.

Akademiska Hus AB, the Swedish state-owned property company, on Monday ended a four year absence from the Swiss franc market with a 10 year note.

WL BANK AG has mandated leads for an eight year mortgage backed covered bond and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has mandated leads for its first conditional pass through, a long six year. Both transactions are likely to be priced on Tuesday.

Banca Carige raised €500m of five year covered bond funding on Monday with the rare 100bp spread providing enough juice to tempt some investors into the book, despite its junk rating from Moody’s.

Standard and Poor’s downgraded Piraeus Bank’s outlook from “selective default” to “default” on Monday, adding to the difficulties facing Greek banks.

Legal & General PLC launched 30 year non-call 10 notes in the UK on Monday, giving investors their first taste of a sterling denominated tier two insurance deal since June.

Croatian state-owned power company Hrvatska Electroprivreda (Hep) has bought back over 80% of its debut dollar deal, and on Monday morning opened books on a new transaction to fund the purchase.

BNP Paribas has hired a replacement global head of equity derivatives strategy, following the departure of its previous head earlier this year.

With China’s President Xi Jinping due to arrive on Monday for his first state visit to the UK, the People’s Bank of China (“PBoC”) decided to launched its debut CNH central bank note in London on the same day, mandating HSBC and ICBC as joint global co-ordinators.

The London Stock Exchange Group is bidding to challenge the dominance of the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and Deutsche Borse in the European interest rate derivatives market by launching platform backed by the Chicago Board Options Exchange and several major banks.

Read on to find out how selected European sovereigns are faring in their funding programmes this year.

Barclays became the sixth bank to seek the consent of investors to switch a number of hard bullet covered bonds to soft bullet maturities. A successful outcome is likely, which will remove onerous collateral obligations under the pre maturity test.