Italy

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is planning to wait until next year to meet a European Commission requirement to issue a tier two bond, beyond the original deadline.

News that the European Central Bank was "reflecting" on reinstating its Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations for a third time (TLTRO III) sent a cheer through the financial institutions bond market this week. Banking commentators had been expecting some sort of extension for the cheap liquidity programme, now they see it as all but inevitable, writes Tyler Davies.

The European Central Bank set the alarm bells ringing for a fresh bout of volatility in the Italian government bond market on Thursday as it outlined its strategy for the reinvestments of its maturing bonds under the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP). Burhan Khadbai reports.

France looks set to be in breach of European Union budget rules after president Emmanuel Macron promised a set of concessionary measures in an effort to quell the violent protests of the last few weeks. While, by the absolute letter of the law, France’s breach will not be as bad as Italy’s, such a situation will hardly do much to stem the rise of populism or boost the credibility of the EU.

Italian equity capital markets (ECMs) have endured a less than stellar year with investors spooked by the country’s political ructions. But despite the outlook suggesting more of the same, as the country thrashes out a budget deal with the European Union, there are opportunities for Italian IPOs in 2019.

Italy is planning to syndicate bonds in the long end of the curve next year through inflation-linked and conventional formats.

Due to the lack of new issuance for over a week in the European corporate bond markets, the vote of no confidence in UK prime minister Theresa May was the talk of both the buy and sell sides on Wednesday morning. But there has been little effect on the market itself so far where political developments in other European states are more of a concern.

Investors have jumped at the chance to exchange a series of senior bonds issued by Banco IFIS for cash, with the Italian bank coming close to buying back the full €100m on offer.

Italy is preparing to make its highly anticipated return to the dollar market next year. The sovereign had planned to issue a dollar syndication in 2018, as first revealed by GlobalCapital, but postponed due to the volatility in the Italian bond market.

Rating: Baa3/BBB/BBB

Italy found strong demand for a surprise syndicated tap on Thursday — despite a fresh and steep sell-off across its curve throughout the day — proving the peripheral sovereign had access to the capital markets even during extremely difficult conditions.

UBI Banca is meeting investors to market its new sustainable bond framework in a non-deal roadshow. It could become the second Italian bank to issue a green bond, and the second to come out with any public unsecured trade since the country’s coalition government formed earlier this year.