KfW

KfW, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and, in the medium-term note (MTN) market, a German region and a Finnish agency have kicked off the Norwegian krone market for SSAs. Bankers are hoping to extend krone’s impressive form from last year into 2020.

A strong reception for a five year euro benchmark by KfW on Tuesday was enough to lure in a hesitant flock of public sector borrowers to the euro market as the pipeline stacks up for Wednesday’s business.

The pipeline is starting to fill in the public sector bond market with the European Investment Bank and Kommunalbanken set to bring dollar deals and KfW preparing its first euro benchmark of the year. More deals — including the first sovereign syndication of the year— are set to follow this week.

KfW broke new ground in the sterling bond market on Monday by bringing its largest ever benchmark in the currency. Kommunalbanken is looking to latch on to the red hot market too after picking banks to lead a new December 2024 trade.

The European Investment Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank amassed strong demand from investors to kick off their funding programmes for the year on Friday, with the former receiving the biggest ever order book in the sterling supranational and agency bond market, according to the leads.

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.