Spain

Société Générale benefitted from calmer issuance conditions on Thursday as it sold €1bn of new tier two debt. The deal takes another chunk out of the issuer’s capital plans, which totalled a sizeable €4.5bn at the beginning of the year.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Tuesday, March 23. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Greece and the Flemish Community are preparing to sell syndicated bonds at the long end of the euro curve following a strong reception for France with the sale of its second green OAT on Tuesday.

Agence France Trésor (AFT), the French sovereign debt office, mandated banks on Monday to lead the sale of the sovereign’s second green OAT, returning to the market for the first time since its debut in 2017.

A flurry of Swiss franc issuance dusted the market this week, as domestic and foreign borrowers entered a more settled market.

Bank issuers are increasingly interested in the idea of selling tier two bonds in green formats. But green additional tier ones are unlikely to bloom.

CaixaBank was well supported for the sale of a new €1bn tier two this week, becoming only the fourth European bank to issue a capital transaction in green format.

Banco de Sabadell was met with good demand this week for the first euro additional tier one benchmark of 2021, as investors welcomed the rare opportunity to pick up subordinated bank debt in the primary market.

Pablo de Ramón-Laca is director general of the treasury and financial policy at Spain's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. That places him in charge of the world's ninth largest sovereign debt stock, according to S&P data, for a country pummelled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Spain has the second highest number of cases in the EU and the seventh highest in the world. But even that is not the full story of the pandemic's impact.

Banco de Sabadell was met with good demand for the first euro additional tier one benchmark of the year on Tuesday, as investors welcomed a rare opportunity to pick up subordinated bank debt in the primary market. Alpha Bank could add to the supply later this week after unveiling plans for a new tier two transaction.

The transposition of the EU's Covered Bond Directive (CBD) into Spanish law is likely to be credit positive, according to a poll of delegates who attended the Association of Financial Markets in Europe’s 12th annual Spanish Capital Markets Virtual Conference on Thursday.

This week was the busiest of the year so far for bank senior supply in euros, as issuers took advantage of strong market conditions after posting full year results.