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Rating: A1/A+ Amount: £250m

Banks continued to be the largest MTN issuers this week, but, reflecting the growing flight to quality in the market, supranational issuance overtook private corporate trades. Investors in euros were least demanding in terms of credit quality, with only 11 of the 88 trades executed being for triple-A credits. At the other end of the spectrum, triple-A issuance in yen made up almost half of the 120 issues. This is explained by yen investors' greater comfort with more complex structures, which enables them to achieve similar returns while taking on less credit risk.

Investors expressed a preference for higher rated issuers this week. Triple-A issuance rose from some 26% of volumes last week to 36%, while double-A trades accounted for 45%, up from 34%. Single-A issuance almost halved, falling from 23% to 12% and unrated trades' share of the market decreased from 15% to 6%. Triple-B was again negligible.