Germany

Puma, the sportswear maker, launched Schuldscheine on Monday tied to its sustainability performance.

Fresh lockdown restrictions added to a sense of anxiety in Europe at the start of the week, with credit markets already on tenterhooks ahead of the US presidential election.

The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (VDP) has published its opinions on the proposed amendments to the Pfandbrief law. The VDP is calling for a less onerous liquidity reserve, which would be aligned with standard practice for many soft bullet maturity structures used elsewhere in Europe.

New national lockdowns in France and Germany smashed secondary equity markets this week, but ECM bankers are confident that as the shock subsides there will still be deals to do.

German e-commerce company Fashionette, which sells designer handbags and accessories online, set a price for its IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Tuesday, even as the main equity index in the country took a pasting.

Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) issued a €500m 20 year flat to fair value on Tuesday even though market conditions were volatile.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank has mandated leads for a rare 20 year covered bond benchmark, the first from a German issuer this year and only the third from the whole market. Rates have collapsed rendering the recently popular 15 year tenor less attractive.

European banks could be set for a wave of calls and tenders on legacy debt instruments, after the European Banking Authority demanded a clean-up this week. Action may not be immediate, however, with markets still seeking clarity on a number of key issues.

DZ Hyp returned to the covered bond market for the fourth time this year on Thursday to issue a €1bn eight year mortgage Pfandbrief. The deal showed that any uncertainty over the relative value of covered bonds has been firmly swept away after the European Union’s blow out debut earlier this week.

Aareal Bank issued a short six year Pfandbrief on Wednesday at a deeply negative yield and with a negative concession. Investor demand was impressive, illustrating that Pfandbriefe, twinned with Aareal’s loan origination standards, were sufficient to offset any concern over the hotel and retail exposures in its collateral pool. At the same time DZ Hyp has mandated leads for an eight year Pfandbrief.

A proposed change to the Pfandbrief law introducing a soft bullet maturity is designed to harmonise Germany’s covered bond regime with the rest of Europe’s, as envisaged under the EU’s Covered Bond Directive. However, it could highlight the vast differences in how soft bullet covered bonds are repaid following extension triggers.

The European Central Bank said this week that it thought a stronger role for countercyclical capital buffers would be key in making sure that banks use their available resources to boost lending in times of crisis.