TD Securities

Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal and Toronto Dominion Bank all issued euro covered bonds in good size this week, finding big savings over senior unsecured issuance. One leading investor said bringing these deals in a fragile market was opportunistic and reflected The Bank of Canada's more restrictive provision of emergency liquidity than in Europe.

Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce all attempted to access the covered bond market on Tuesday with euros clearly showing more depth than sterling. The fact the three issuers were in the market simultaneously, whilst a fourth was monitoring the market, is not coincidental and contrasts with European and UK issuers that already have a central bank liquidity life line.

A window for Kangaroo issuance opened this week, as a positive move in the Australian dollar/euro basis swap helped rouse a slumbering market that had not seen a deal for a fortnight. In spite of unstable conditions, SSAs entered the market on Monday and Tuesday, with a trio of regular borrowers tapping six lines for a combined A$575m ($364m).

It was a mixed picture in the dollar public sector bond market on Thursday. A Norwegian agency was able to tighten the spread of its five year fixed rate trade on the back of a well subscribed order book. But a supranational was not able to achieve the same momentum for an intraday three year Sofr-linked floating rate note.

The World Bank has surprised onlookers with a five year benchmark bond, printed into the teeth of the volatility caused by Covid-19 and an emergency rate cut from the Federal Reserve. The successful deal from the supranational has emboldened an agency to follow suit, with others expected to follow.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) braved “horrendous” market conditions in order to print the first Sofr trade linked to the Federal Reserve’s index.

The European Investment Bank is out with its first Sofr-linked floating rate note structured with a ‘shift’ coupon calculation rather than the ‘lag’ methodology which it introduced to the Sofr FRN market in June 2019.

ING was praised for pricing a coupon of 4.875% in what was the only financial institution trade of the week in the euro market. The lender had to brave much tougher market conditions in its second attempt at this bond issue, having pulled its first attempt amid news of its chief executive jumping ship.

ING left its investors bemused on Wednesday, when it decided to pull the additional tier one (AT1) bond it was marketing on the basis of undisclosed information it had received. After the news of its chief executive’s move to UBS quickly became public, the door was left open for the bank to complete the trade.

One of February’s few dollar issuers hit screens on Thursday, raising $1bn of five year cash at an impressive spread.

The Council of Europe Development Bank has picked the banks to lead its first dollar benchmark of the year, in what will only be the second public deal in the currency this week.

ING Groep postponed the sale of an additional tier one after clocking up $11bn of demand in the dollar market on Wednesday. At the same time, Arion Bank was looking to launch a $100m deal in the same format — the lowest volume on record in dollars.