Medium Term Notes and Private Placements

Supranationals have delivered a spurt of niche currency medium term notes, returning to old favourites like South African rand as well as making use of demand for more exotic currencies, particularly in Latin America.

The African Development Bank has sold its longest MTN ever, leading a spurt of long dated private placement euro issuance from public sector borrowers.

KfW has sold Europe’s first blockchain-based bond, although a quirk of German law meant the transaction had to be replicated on paper. While the bond was instantly settled, those involved say a crucial component is missing if this technology is to become part of capital markets’ infrastructure: a cash settlement facility on a distributed ledger.

Mizuho has hired Julie Edinburgh to fill a new position: head of vanilla MTNs.

KfW has entered the Blockchain race, after simulating a trade in real time using distributed ledger technology, the agency said on Monday.

The MTN market has produced a slew of dollar trades while the syndicated market was subdued by the midweek Federal Reserve meeting. Supranationals in particular have been able to pick up some sizeable dollar funding.

Nordic Investment Bank is now using two-way credit support annexes for 85% of its outstanding swaps, allowing the supranational to take advantage of hot demand for emerging market currency MTNs.

FMO, the Netherlands development agency, this week became one of the only borrowers to issue synthetic bonds referencing the Myanmar kyat.

Public sector borrowers are adding new flavours to the flurry of emerging market paper that has dominated flows in the medium-term note market throughout the summer, printing trades in currencies they only rarely access.

The reform of European money market funds (MMFs) should cause short end public sector yields to fall as funds scramble to build up liquidity, according to a research note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

A pair of supranationals have launched MTNs in two emerging market currencies, adding new flavours to the flurry of emerging market paper from supranational borrowers.

Korea Development Bank (KDB) has made its debut in the Swedish krona market, becoming the second Korean public sector entity to do so this year.