Germany

The London Stock Exchange this week reaffirmed its commitment to open access under the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, as major European exchanges and clearing houses (CCPs) were granted exemptions from the requirement until July 3 2020.

Whether MiFID II will affect the Schuldschein market is often discussed in Frankfurt. As collections of bilateral loans, Schuldscheine are exempt from the regulation — leading some to predict a boon for the asset class. But the optimism in some quarters is overdone.

Ireland is set to become the first SSA borrower of 2018 to print a syndicated bond, picking banks for a benchmark deal to be sold on Wednesday. The German state of Lower Saxony will also come to market on Wednesday.

Institutional lenders have participated in the Schuldschein market for decades. But as the market heats up, their offering of long-dated lending with a need for financial covenants has become less sought after. Now the institutions are working out ways to return.

Steinhoff International, the retail conglomerate listed in Johannesburg and Frankfurt, said on Tuesday that its numbers for 2015 were unreliable and that prior years may also need to be restated.

Bankers are predicting the busiest first quarter on record, as the year ahead looks set to reflect the momentum of the last.

Commerzbank is "working on" a replacement for two longstanding FIG syndicate bankers who left the firm just before Christmas.

NAC Aviation 29, a subsidiary of Danish aircraft lessor NAC Aviation, has raised its first Schuldschein. The first drawdown of the debt is expected before new year. Many in the market had doubted the deal would get done.

Dealogic could be one of the last leveraged loan deals to close in 2017. With allocations of its dividend recapitalisation loans due on Friday, the deal is likely to cap what has been an all-time record year of issuance in the European leveraged loan market.

How the Schuldschein market reacts when a borrower has payment difficulties has been a perennial question since the instrument reached a global audience. The revelations about possible false accounting at Steinhoff are likely to prove one of the market's biggest tests yet.

Steinhoff International’s shares jolted downwards again today as it met its banks in London, seeking their support to get through the difficulties caused by apparent false accounting.

Germany has announced its funding target for 2018, reducing its long term fixed-income target by €5bn from its 2017 number but aiming for a total, including short term instruments, of €183bn — up from €172bn in 2017.