Lloyds Bank

The UK's Clarion Housing Group, a housing association, got a rapturous reception from the sterling bond market on Wednesday, which allowed it to increase its green bond and price it flat to its curve.

The Sonia-linked covered bond market is showing signs that it is 'maturing', with Commonwealth Bank of Australia launching a new deal in the format on Tuesday and Coventry Building Society looking to follow in the footsteps of two of its compatriots early in 2020.

Issuers rushed to open the euro covered bond market this week. Trades from ABN Amro, Erste Group and LBBW showed that investors are ready to put cash to work, but higher new issue premiums suggested that issuers were taking a 'conservative' approach at the beginning of the year.

Nationwide Building Society issued the first sterling covered bond of the year on Friday, without needing to pay any premium over the tight trading levels of its existing bonds.

The Bank of England said it will increase the countercyclical buffer by 100bp for UK banks after disclosing the results of its latest stress test this week. As the sector performed well in the test, the new capital requirements are being interpreted as a ‘Brexit buffer’ to help institutions withstand the risk of economic turmoil at the end of 2020.

Investec has entered the loan market for the third time this year, taking a $450m two year term loan from a range of international lenders.

Utmost International, the life assurance group which mandated leads to run investor meetings for a senior bond in mid-November, may have missed the issuance window this year as the primary market slows to a standstill around the UK's general election.

Yorkshire Water flattened the long end of its sterling bond curve on Tuesday, as investors remain content with UK risk, as long as the Labour Party looks unlikely to win the general election on December 12.

Japan Tobacco and Yorkshire Water have given mandates for new euro and sterling bonds, respectively, as S&P Global says the amount of European corporate debt it rates has grown to €6.44tr.

Nedbank has closed a $500m term loan, while Investec has launched its own syndicated loan, indicating that despite concerns about South Africa’s ratings outlook, its borrowers maintain access to international syndicated loans.

Lloyds Banking Group marketed an additional tier one in the sterling market this week, making use of favourable conditions. The lender was “quite an attractive credit” in an undersupplied market, according to analysts.

Oil major BP and motorbike maker Harley-Davidson both hit the euro bond market on Tuesday, in the wake of the European Central Bank’s far bigger than expected first week of corporate bond purchases.