There will be fewer private placements from Spanish regional issuers in the coming weeks, according to medium term note dealers. But the bankers are divided as to whether this is investor or issuer driven.

Agence France Locale (AFL), a new funding agency for French regions, is preparing a debut issue that could appear in the second half of the year. Bankers reckon the agency will likely find widespread interest from investors, particularly in the private placement market.

A pair of French regional issuers could soon join a German sub-sovereign in selling long-dated private placements in yen. Japanese investors are coming late to the party as the regions have already begun to extend their maturities.

A lack of investor interest in supranational and agencies’ traditional private placement formats is forcing issuers to sell deals in rare currencies and structures, according to MTN dealers.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation is keen to follow up its second ever privately placed dim sum this week with more deals in the currency, the issuer told EuroWeek. Meanwhile, its Norwegian neighbour, Nordic Investment Bank is also considering its first dim sum deal.

Bankers have lobbied supranational and agency borrowers for years to sign two-way Credit Support Annexes (CSAs) to overcome the ramping up of new issue swap hedging costs on primary bond business. It is a cost that has had senior SSA bankers fearing for the very life of the SSA bond business. But now the forces of Abenomics acting upon Japanese investor habits may drive borrowers to reconsider their swap arrangements putting to bed one of the longest running and fiercest debates in capital markets.

UK local authorities should follow the example of French and German counterparts and look to print private placements, MTN dealers urged this week.

Asian Development Bank sold its first Singaporean dollar deal in nearly six years on November 6 in a S$500m ($402m) private placement.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten will polish off its funding target for the rest of the year with small deals, similar to a pair of trades it placed early this week.

Several sovereign, supranational and agencies looking to diversify their investor base have ramped up their private placement issuance this year. But the smartest borrowers have looked past medium term note programmes and are investigating the Schuldschein and Namensschuldverschreibung formats — two markets that have moved beyond their German origins and are attracting more international investors and issuers.

The burgeoning offshore renminbi bond market claimed three firsts this week, amid suggestions that some of the moves trialled by issuers could become commonplace.

The European Investment Bank revisited the Czech koruna market for the first time since 2011 this week, raising Ck500m ($26.8m) with a December 2023 floating rate note.