National Australia Bank

Handelsbanken is set to return to the Australian dollar market for the first time in nearly two years this week, as Aussie dollar senior paper rallies thanks to the long term absence of funding from the market's major domestic banks.

BNP Paribas and UBS opened the offshore Australian dollar FIG market for 2021 this week, with a pair of new senior deals.

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish wind farm fund, has made an acquisition of around €60m acquisition in Finland, a few months after the company sold equity to free up debt for purchases.

Westpac kicked off 2021’s Australian financials market on Thursday by launching a new tier two bond. Aussie borrowers are expected to focus on capital trades this year in order to meet their total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirements with tier two debt.

Royal Bank of Canada priced its first bond issue of the year as Yankee borrowers made the most of good funding conditions in the run-up to US bank earnings season.

Yankee issuers stormed into the US dollar market to lock in record low levels of funding, despite this week’s turmoil in Washington, DC.

Trig, the London-listed renewable infrastructure investment firm, has signed a £500m loan with its margin linked to Sonia rather than Libor, as loans bankers try to encourage borrowers look at their loan documents soon to avoid bottlenecks next year.

Macquarie achieved a decade low print for a five year Australian dollar floater this week, as the lack of supply from financial issuers in 2020 has sent spreads grinding downwards.

Metropolitan Life landed a good price on its return to the Aussie dollar market on Thursday, thanks to tightening spreads and a scarcity of high rated financial paper.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced plans to explore the potential uses and implications of a central bank digital currency using distributed ledger technology. The RBA follows the Banque de France, which last year worked with Société Générale to settle a crypto covered bond — a product that offers a number of ways to deploy blockchain technology.

Greencoat Renewables, the Irish renewable infrastructure company, has signed a €200m term loan, as it looks to manage its longer duration leverage.

Woori Bank is preparing to make its Kangaroo bond debut, choosing the market to launch its first Covid-19 response bond.