Pre-migration untagged articles

BT Group, the UK fixed line telecoms firm, suffered a ratings downgrade this week that could affect its access to the commercial paper market.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp sold C$2.83bn ($2.84bn) of Canada Mortgage Bonds (CMBs) in two tranches on Wednesday, its first issue of the product this year.

Optimism that the nadir of the Greek crisis has passed helped three issuers launch benchmark covered bonds this week after the sovereign volatility, although supply remained restricted to the most resilient jurisdictions of France and Germany.

Some investors pulled away from the European commercial market this wek over concern about Greece and other economies, while issuers from the region have had to offer increased spreads.

Thames Water and Fonterra this week became the latest corporate issuers to sell large dollar private placements to an investor who has already bought several similar notes this year.

Dealers of private EMTNs: Non-syndicated deals for less than $250m excluding financial repackaged SPVs, GSE issuers, self-led deals and issues with a term of less than 365 days.

Financial institution funding levels for structured notes edged out this week but with jittery investors and volatile markets there were still few takers for the paper.

The Australian dollar remains the go-to niche currency, said non-core currency bond specialists this week, despite a lack of deals, in stark contrast to heavy recent issuance in the currency.

Only the Inter-American Development Bank is this week representing SSAs in a dollar market becalmed ahead of the Chinese New Year. IADB issued a $1.5bn 10 year priced at 25bp over mid-swaps, flat to its 2019 bond and 8bp inside KfW’s January 2020 transaction. It proved hugely popular with central banks, which bought almost 70% of the deal, but less so with US fund managers since the pricing was inside that of GSEs. Read EuroWeek on Friday for IADB and other dollar market news

The Co-operative Bank is joining the ranks of UK RMBS issuers with a debut securitisation of prime mortgages from its Britannia subsidiary. With credit markets wobbling in the wake of fears over European sovereigns, is now the right time for a new issuer to come to market. Read EuroWeek on Friday to find out.