Germany

Finland received record demand for its first syndication of the year on Tuesday. The sovereign was joined in the long end of the curve by the State of North Rhine Westphalia as it tapped its February 2038s.

The Republic of Finland and the State of North Rhine Westphalia hired banks on Monday to prepare syndicated bonds at the long end of the euro curve. Yields of eurozone haven assets remain compressed while fears of the coronavirus outbreak intensify.

Volkswagen Bank has belatedly joined the list of banks whose Pillar 2 requirements were posted on the European Central Bank's website this week. It had initially not consented to its targets being published.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued its first €1bn-sized covered bond and first negative yielding Asian covered bond on Wednesday. The strong reception was in keeping with two German Pfandbriefe also issued this week by Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank (Dapo) and Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw.

Few MTN issuers have so far issued in the Libor-replacing euro short term rate (€STR) format, with deals limited so far to supranationals, agencies and, this week, a sub-sovereign. Some bankers blame the 2017 EU Prospectus Directive for tightening up the rules on adding new indices to programmes, leaving non-exempt issuers on the sidelines.

The Loan Market Association is set to restart its Schuldschein working group in February, with a workstream addressing credit restructuring. This is an early sign that the market’s heavyweights are taking this issue — which has damaged the Schuldschein’s reputation in some quarters — seriously.

Deutsche Apotheker- und Aerztebank (Dapo) underlined just how strong the primary covered bond market is on Thursday by wrapping up a busy week's supply with what was arguably the tightest German deal of the year so far.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued its first €1bn-sized covered bond on Wednesday and priced the deal inside fair value. At the same time, Société Générale issued a €1bn 10 year green covered bond flat to its curve with eye-catching demand.

German supermarket chain Lidl has raised a £515m-equivalent loan from a consortium of Chinese and Taiwanese lenders for two of its European subsidiaries, in the company’s first outing in Asian capital markets.

LBBW has revealed that most investors in its latest green bond were signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. The novel disclosure offers a ‘more reliable’ way of describing green participation in new bond issues, according to the bank.

The European Central Bank launched a strategic review of its monetary policy strategy on Thursday, but otherwise kept its fairly dovish stance on eurozone rates more or less unchanged.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) became the first issuer of non-preferred senior bonds in green format in sterling this week. The German lender took advantage of favourable market conditions to print in line with other recent sterling issuers.