Sweden

The Swedish Export Credit Corp printed a $1.25bn three year global benchmark bond on Wednesday, tightening the spread to land flat to its curve and aided by a favourable move in swap spreads.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes at the start of November. Some of the issuers have also set their funding targets for 2020.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) refrained from pushing into record territory with the coupon on its new dollar-denominated AT1 on Tuesday, as European banks begin testing new lows for yields in the asset class.

LBBW had enough support from investors to price a new additional tier one (AT1) with hardly any new issue premium on Monday, having been pushed into entering the asset class for the first time as a result of recent changes to the rules on bank capital in Europe.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress European sovereigns have made in their funding programmes as we approach the end of October.

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The branding may be on the way out, but there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the potential for real progress in the next phase of the Capital Markets Union.

Kommuninvest has added euros to its strategic funding markets for benchmark bonds alongside Swedish krona and dollars.

Sweden’s consideration of whether to issue a green bond has been careful and thorough, stretching over nearly three years and considering several objections. The Riksgälden (Swedish National Debt Office) is now determined to go ahead with a deal in 2020. Here, the Riksgälden answers GlobalCapital’s questions about its thinking.

The European Systemic Risk Board is concerned that covered bonds could be fuelling financial imbalances — a claim that some analysts find tenuous. They do, however, agree that house prices are overvalued, particularly in some Nordic countries where the ESRB has identified a risk of financial contagion.

Sweden has mandated SEB as structuring adviser on its debut green bond, to be issued in 2020. The announcement on Thursday morning for the first time puts a definite date on when Sweden will issue. The process of considering the idea has already taken nearly three years.

Investors have not completely shunned Libor-linked floating rate notes from public sector borrowers, as a trade from Swedish Export Credit Corp showed this week.