KfW

Frank Czichowski, KfW’s treasurer for more than 15 years, will be retiring in 2020. KfW has announced that it will hire the former treasurer of another German agency as his replacement.

Sterling is set to take a bigger slice of the socially responsible bond market as a result of a number of initiatives, including reforms that are putting the pressure on UK pension funds to focus on environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors in their investments. Burhan Khadbai reports

For public sector issuers, niche currency deals have offered attractive opportunities for arbitrage funding, with spreads into euros and dollars spurring on demand this year. Meanwhile, strong investor appetite for green paper has seen niche shoots blossom throughout 2019. Frank Jackman reports

KfW has announced a smaller borrowing programme for next year, joining a number of other public sector borrowers also set to borrow less in 2020.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress of Europe's supranationals and agencies in the middle of November.

Guarantor: Federal Republic of Germany

KfW returned to Polish zloty issuance last Friday after a 13 year absence from the market, as it looks to tap new sources of capital.

KfW’s first €STR bond hit the market on Wednesday. Although the German agency managed a tighter price than EIB’s first note in the format, it was not able to drum up the same level of demand.

All maturities are open for deals in the euro market, thanks to a widening in benchmark spreads over the past few weeks. SSA issuers are taking advantage of the conditions by issuing in a range of tenors.

KfW has mandated banks for its first €STR transaction as it looks to become the third public sector borrower to sell a bond linked to the new euro risk-free rate.

KfW’s inclusion of ESG ratings in a term sheet might seem a superficial step — just one more disclosure of another piece of publicly available data — but it is a step towards a more sensible system of socially responsible investment.

KfW returned to the euro market on Tuesday for a tap of its euro May 2027 green bond. The deal offered a small new issue concession at the final spread, as the euro SSA pipeline winds down in the final months of the year.