The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) returned to the market this week to place two more deals, as it ramps up its MTN issuance following a debut in Hong Kong dollars last Friday.

Communauté Française de Belgique returned in mid-August after a seventh month absence to print a slew of deals for a combined €404m, according to Dealogic.

Bank issuance of commercial paper has fallen sharply in 2020, thanks to generous liquidity provisions from the ECB. But overall issuance has climbed slightly, mostly off the back of increased SSA activity.

The Euro Short Term Rate may be running into the first real problem of its short life. The benchmark was designed to provide a reflection of wholesale euro overnight borrowing costs based on real transaction data. But what if there aren’t enough transactions?

A sudden dip in the volume of €STR transactions and the number of banks submitting data has led to market participants voicing concerns about the rate.

A technical issue around data submission meant that the euro area short term rate (€STR) did not have enough data to be calculated in the usual way on Tuesday morning, forcing the ECB to use its contingency method.

MTN platform Origin has released its documentation automation facility to a subset of Origin Marketplace users comprising 11 banks and 16 issuers.

The technical issue that led to the ECB being forced to use its contingency computation method to set €STR on Tuesday has been fixed, and the benchmark is once more functioning normally.

A technical issue around the data submission meant that the euro area short term rate (€STR) did not have enough data to be calculated in the usual way this morning, forcing the ECB to use its contingency method.

Although the MTN market contracted during the first half of 2020, structured issuance rose. The bulk of the increase came in the form of notes with calls added to enhance yield.

Issuers have been flocking to the market with coronavirus response bonds, but only a few have sold MTNs with the same theme. That is changing however, and IDB Invest, the private sector investment arm of the Inter-American Development Bank is likely to be next.

TD Securities has appointed Matthew Jaconelli to head up its MTN and niche currency operations in Europe, taking over from Sameer Rehman, who will now focus on financial and corporate issuance.