Nordics

The Finnish financial sector wants to put the brakes on new measures aimed at completing the Banking Union, arguing that EU member states should move back into a clearly defined process of risk reduction.

Norwegian banks are unsure how to press on with their minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (NFSA) is asking them to meet their targets with subordinated liabilities only, but there is a chance the country will implement a softer set of EU rules next year.

Kommuninvest, the Swedish local government funding agency, is hoping to issue its much delayed debut green bond in euros next year after initial plans to bring the deal this year were put on hold.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2020 funding programmes in mid-December, with some issuers also setting their targets for 2021.

A busy December for Nordic equity capital markets continued on Tuesday night with a Nkr2bn ($230m) transaction in Adevinta, the e-commerce and classified advertising company owned by Schibsted Media Group.

Kommunalbanken, the Norwegian funding agency for local governments, is reducing its 2021 funding programme.

Finland has cut the number of its solicited credit ratings from three to two after removing Moody’s, leaving the sovereign with scores from Fitch and S&P Global.

Kommunalbanken, the financing agency for Norwegian municipalities, and L–Bank, the development bank for the State of Baden–Württemberg, built well covered order books as they brought what will likely be the SSA market’s final dollar benchmark deals of 2020.

The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, is adding a “negative screening” process to its purchases of corporate bonds under its quantitative easing programme, meaning it will no longer buy the bonds of the most polluting companies.

Kommunalbanken and L-Bank will each bring a dollar benchmark to the market on Tuesday, in what could be the final public SSA deals in the currency this year.

Italy returned to the private placement market to print one of the year’s largest MTNs on Thursday. The deal stood out this week, since issuance in the market has started to wind down ahead of Christmas.

European banks are running out of ways of selling senior bonds at positive yields. A near-miss from Svenska Handelsbanken this week was enough to convince the market that it’s only a matter of time before an issuer breaks the 0% barrier, write Tyler Davies and Frank Jackman.