Featured FIG

Other banks could be encouraged to follow the UK-based borrower in running tender exercises alongside new additional tier one issues

The European Central Bank’s Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operation may never disappear, but the central bank will find it difficult to maintain record-breaking interest rates on its loans as the economy recovers from the pandemic. As the terms of the liquidity scheme surely begin to tighten, issuers will have a greater incentive to repay TLTROs and switch to market funding.

Large European banks are tipped to bring their deal plans forward after they saw Barclays make the most of summer funding this week. The UK issuer proved firms will not have to wait until September to be confident of attracting big books at tight spreads.

The US Federal Reserve moved one step closer this week to signalling it will start to end its quantitative easing measures. FIG borrowers now face a nervous wait for the central bank’s next communication in late August, which will define the strength of market conditions ahead of a crucial issuance window in September.