The UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission made a barnstorming entrance to the green bond market on Monday, cutting its spread and winning a bumper book for its first euro bond issue in more than a decade.

The European Financial Stability Facility took the spotlight in the euro public sector bond market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of a busy week. The European Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Spain and Cyprus have all announced new deals.

An unusual note of optimism defines the attitude of Europe’s public sector issuers as they approach 2020. While many other markets are beset by fears of a slowdown in global growth, trade wars, and Brexit, SSA borrowers are confident in their borrowing strategies and loyal investor bases. Despite a change of face in the ECB’s top job, rates are still set to remain low for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, investors are having to grit their teeth to stomach the scanty yields on offer for euro SSA assets. Although SSAs are offering little in the way of yield, their place as pioneers of the evolving SRI market always ensures lively debate. In this roundtable, held in early November, market participants on both the buyside and the sell side favoured a more holistic assessment of issuers’ ESG profiles, rather than relying on labelled assets, but whether or not the ECB should take a role in promoting the SRI market through “green QE” divided the group.

Shriram Transport Finance Co appealed to investors in the US by selling a social bond that flew off the shelves, allowing the Indian non-banking financial company to raise $500m.

The sustainability-linked loan market is a glorious mess.

The loan market’s trade bodies are preparing to give new guidance about how to ensure sustainability-linked loans — in which borrowers can get a margin reduction if they hit sustainability targets — are genuinely “ambitious”. Bankers want to protect the market from rising concerns that some deals’ terms are too easy on the borrowers.

The bank has been added to DNB's list of registered covered bond issuers

Issuance will be lower in June as yields rise

Amazon’s Swiss debut and Alphabet’s first yen deal jolted debt markets this week

Artificial intelligence is changing the investment banking game. But banks are divided on whether to cut costs or try and win more deals

The US bank is showing its global credentials at a time of increased transatlantic tensions but European banks are equal to the challenge

FIG issuers have shown that investors are ready to absorb all the supply that comes their way

Increased investor interest in utilities hybrids could bring down subordination premium, says SSE treasurer

Divisions deepen over multilateral development banks’ climate commitments

◆ UK utility prints €1.3bn dual trancher ◆ Issuer skips guidance as it masses orders north of €10bn ◆ Longer call leg draws stronger demand

Inclusion of a variable rate instrument was not acceptable to official creditors

Thibaut Makarovsky, head of funding and market operations at AFD, discusses his recent dollar trade and funding plans

It is not clear what needs to be restructured, and the coming debt analysis may lack credibility

Sovereign bond print went ahead despite missile and drone attacks just before pricing

Choosing the right tools mitigates the risk of spiraling bills

It's not the juniors in capital markets who need protecting from obsolescence. They stand to benefit most from the deployment of AI

US drug company Eli Lilly jolted the dollar market awake on Wednesday with an eight-part jumbo trade to fund two recent acquisitions

The US dollar market buoyant this week despite escalating hostilities in the Middle East

Redwood will be a repeat issuer