Nordics

Finland is unlikely to pay another visit to the syndicated or private placement markets this year and will instead look to round off its long-term funding needs with a tap via auction.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, September 28. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services

Svenska Handelsbanken found tight pricing for a dual offering of additional tier one (AT1) notes on Tuesday. It became the first European bank to set a dollar AT1 coupon of less than 4.5% for one of its tranches.

Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) mandated leads for its first dollar covered bond in a year on Monday. The issuer joins Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which on Monday crystallised plans to press ahead with its debut deal following a period of soft marketing, while Swedish non-conforming lender Bluestep Bank commenced marketing on Monday.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance has said it will apply tighter mortgage lending standards from next week after temporarily loosening them to support the economy. The move, which was not unexpected in light of the resilient state of the economy and stubbornly high house price inflation, will minimise mortgage defaults.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation took full advantage of the quiet SSA market to print a three year dollar benchmark on Wednesday. Ontario Teachers Finance Trust is set to follow on Thursday.

Spanish telecoms group MasMovil is preparing a €720m bond, the second part of the financing for its take-private by Cinven, KKR and Providence Private Equity. Most of the €2.9bn financing came through a loan issue, allocated in July, with the bonds readied following shareholder acceptance for the offer last week.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their 2020 funding programmes in mid-September.

Eika Boligkreditt and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt issued covered bonds flat or inside their curves this week. But a deal for Sparebank 1 Boligkredit stood out for its green credentials that ensured it received more demand from more investors and achieved a much larger deal size.

Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ), Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt (Svegno) were set to issue covered bonds with zero new issue premiums on Thursday. But after a surprisingly busy week, the market is now "running out of steam" with order books were much slower to build and subscription ratios far lower than transactions issued earlier this week.

Sweden's financial supervisor has extended its application of a risk weight floor on domestic mortgages, a measure that will help to protect senior debt by forcing banks to run with higher capital positions.

UniCredit Bank Austria (Baca) was set to issue its fastest growing, most subscribed covered bond ever on Tuesday and Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt was posed to bring ts most subscribed deal with its most granular order book ever. Both covered bonds were priced flat or slightly inside fair value and illustrated that market conditions are at the best they've been this year.