Europe

European banks are struggling to decide how to strike the right tone when reporting their first quarter results this year amid the extreme uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Despite guidance from regulators, their biggest difficulty will be in signalling their expectations for loan losses.

Financial institutions bond bankers are struggling to build a new pipeline of issuance, despite a significant improvement in market conditions this week. Not only are banks entering blackout periods ahead of first quarter results, many of them are also happy to wait before seeking to raise new funding.

Finance ministers have agreed on the use of the European Stability Mechanism, the European Investment Bank and a new unemployment fund as a fiscal response to the coronavirus crisis, but they remain split on language about a possible common recovery fund. They are set to reconvene — virtually — on Thursday afternoon.

'We are all in this together' is not a view Europe’s investment banks will recognise when they compare themselves with their formidable US rivals, writes David Rothnie.

A trio of agencies hit screens with dollar deals on Tuesday. Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten and CDP Financial tapped the three year part of the curve, while the Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust reopened a five year market that had been shuttered by coronavirus-related volatility.

Ireland impressed on-looking supranational, sovereign and agency bond bankers on Tuesday as it received its largest ever order book for a syndication. It was not the only eurozone sovereign in the market as Cyprus printed seven and 30 year bonds.

The European Investment Bank, the European Stability Mechanism and a new unemployment fund are set to play a part in EU finance minsters’ response to the coronavirus crisis. Coronabonds are likely to be mentioned at their meeting on Tuesday evening, but any concrete plans for mutualised debt look to be elusive at this stage.

Germany’s Finanzagentur has outlined plans to sell its first syndicated bonds since 2015, with a new 15 year in May and a reopening of an existing 30 year bond in June. It said further syndications could follow in the second half of the year as it comes to terms with a much bigger funding programme in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, April 6. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest privately owned banks, has kicked off a tender offer for two tranches of its debt, continuing a run of liability management exercises from its sector.

The Swedish national debt office (Riksgälden) said on Tuesday that banks would have two extra years to raise non-preferred senior debt for their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). The announcement came a day after Svenska Handelsbanken sold an ordinary senior deal in the euro market.

Schuldschein bankers are working out what pricing is fair during the Covid-19 crisis, as investors observe sharp widening in euro bond spreads.