TD Securities

A leading covered bond investor has reacted positively to a series of measures announced by Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ (OSFI) which have effectively provided stable access to emergency funding, including a temporary increase in the amount of covered bonds the country's banks can issue. The move comes after a heavy spell of supply that had sparked concerns that Canadian banks were struggling for cash.

The dollar bond market is gradually opening up, with two high quality public sector borrowers hitting screens on Monday for short dated deals. But with volatility still gripping the cross-currency basis swap market, European borrowers are still sticking to their home currency.

Investors flocked to African Development Bank’s Fight Covid-19 social bond on Thursday, allowing the supranational to print its own largest ever dollar deal, and its largest ever social bond.

The Inter-American Development Bank on Thursday started marketing a five year sustainable development bond in Global format as it looks to become third SSA borrower to jump into the dollar market this week. But SSA issuers that fund in euros will unlikely be able to mirror join the party.

The Republic of Austria and the African Development Bank announced new bond transactions on Wednesday which will be used to provide emergency financing in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

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.