Finland

Danske Mortgage Bank, Santander UK, Raiffeisenlandesbank Hypothekenpfandbrief and UniCredit Bank AG were marketing covered bonds on Wednesday, steering well clear of negative yields by tapping into healthy demand for long dated assets.

A strong reception for a five year euro benchmark by KfW on Tuesday was enough to lure in a hesitant flock of public sector borrowers to the euro market as the pipeline stacks up for Wednesday’s business.

Three companies piled into the euro bond market on Monday, but the deals drew mixed reactions. Two standard investment grade issues from LafargeHolcim and Ford Motor Credit appeared to fare better than a rare green hybrid from Citycon paying a juicy yield.

HVB, the German subsidiary of UniCredit, on Tuesday attracted one of the highest orders books for a €1bn covered bond from a core European bank in the last six months. It was able to tighten the pricing gap by 4bp to a competing deal issued by OP Mortgage Bank.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes at the start of November. Some of the issuers have also set their funding targets for 2020.

The Swedish krona MTN market’s bumper year received a further boost as nuclear power plant operator Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) returned to the MTN market for the first time in five years to place a pair of notes in the currency. However, the return may be short lived, as TVO has plenty of access to cash and will take an opportunistic approach to future issuance.

Finnish agency Municipality Finance has faced a decline in callable MTN issuance this year as investors shun the format and move “more and more towards benchmarks with greater liquidity”, according to funding manager Martin Svedholm.

Guarantor: Republic of Finland

Finnvera stormed through its second — and probably final — syndicated trade of the year on Wednesday as it received a twice subscribed order book that allowed it to tighten the spread by 2bp.

The World Bank appointed banks on Tuesday to lead its first 10 year dollar benchmark in almost two years to join a flurry of SSAs who have recently ventured into this rarely visited part of the curve in the currency. Meanwhile, Finnvera has mandated banks for its second syndicated trade of the year.

The European Systemic Risk Board is concerned that covered bonds could be fuelling financial imbalances — a claim that some analysts find tenuous. They do, however, agree that house prices are overvalued, particularly in some Nordic countries where the ESRB has identified a risk of financial contagion.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2019 funding programmes by the middle of September.