France

Société Générale offered its first covered bond since February into a busy market on Monday. As a core bank and from a core eurozone country, the trade offers the highest quality of the three seven year deals in the market on Monday and the tightest spread. The issuer was, however, forced to offer a 7bp concession in order to price over French government bonds.

Barclays began marketing a multi-tranche Samurai trade on Monday, as some FIG bankers claimed European banks were still baulking at the new issue premiums being offered by US visitors to the euro market.

Read on to see how selected French agencies are progressing through their 2015 funding programmes.

Commerzbank, Caisse Francaise de Financement Local (Caffil) and Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) invigorated the long end of the covered bond market this week with 10 year deals, a duration which had not been seen for over four months.

UniCredit Bank Austria (Baca) returned to the covered bond market on Tuesday to issue the first Austrian Pfandbrief since the country’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) announced a debt moratorium on bonds issued by Heta Asset Resolution AG (HAR).

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel opened the euro tier two market for a long list of names, as bankers sit on a pipeline that some say contains more than 20 transactions.

Activity in the covered bond primary market continued at a brisk pace on Wednesday as RBC, DG Hyp, Caffil and Erste Bank priced transactions, taking the deal count this week to 10. Despite mixed receptions, issuers have been able to raise over €7bn, with over €3bn issued on Wednesday, and at levels that look attractive compared to senior unsecured financials.

After a month-long drought in the euro covered bond market, a minimum of three deals could be priced this week after Crédit Agricole leapt on improved conditions to reopen the market on Thursday.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel has burst back into the market shortly after a summer blackout, raising €600m with a spree of floating rate medium term notes.

Crédit Agricole ended a month long euro covered bond drought on Thursday, leaping on improved market conditions to print a €1.25bn six year soft bullet with a minimal new issue concession. Bankers say the deal proves there is plenty of demand and will help to relieve pressure on the pipeline which has been building up this week.

Euro benchmark covered bond year-to-date supply is the lowest in the last decade as a series of macro events, combined with banks’ increasing focus on bail-in, have kept activity to a minimum.

Société Générale’s head of EMEA structured finance and loan syndication has moved to a new job within the bank and his responsibilities have been assumed by two colleagues.