The Netherlands

FMO began a series of investor calls on Monday to market a rare tier two bond issue ahead of a call date of a previous deal in the format in December.

NRW.Bank’s inaugural social bond sparked a flurry of 15 year trades this week as a flattening French curve and the positive yields on offer helped spur on demand, with three issuers opting to follow the German agency’s successful trip to the maturity on Wednesday.

The 15 year tenor is the flavour of the week in the SSA market. Three issuers have mandated for deals at the tenor so far, following on from NRW.Bank’s successful trip to the maturity on Tuesday.

NRW.Bank signalled to the market that there is demand at 15 years with its inaugural social bond on Tuesday. Following the deal two other European issuers, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten and Portugal, mandated for deals of their own in the tenor.

NN Bank used a quiet market this week to launch the first deal from its new soft bullet covered bond programme. The inaugural deal carried an ‘attractive’ spread and was more than three times subscribed at final terms.

NN Bank unveiled plans on Monday to issue its first covered bond from its newly published soft-bullet programme. At the same time, Berlin Hyp has mandated lead managers for the sale of a new green covered bond.

Issuers are struggling to obtain the necessary internal approvals to issue covered bonds, given how expensive the instruments are compared to the European Central Bank's Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO III).

Coöperatieve Rabobank launched a 10 year covered bond at a spread of 7bp over mid-swaps this week, leaving a small new issue concession for investors. The deal also underlined the recent recovery of credit spreads amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stephan Gimpel is leaving Citi to pursue an opportunity in fintech, after 14 years in the US bank’s debt capital markets business.

The Dutch State Treasury Agency has announced that it will reopen its inaugural green bond via auction next Tuesday as it looks to bring the trade closer to a benchmark size.

Finland’s Municipality Finance returned to the domestic New Zealand dollar bond market on Friday after a long absence, to raise its largest Kauri bond since 2008.

Covered bond spreads in euros have already recovered more than half of the widening that they suffered through March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic. Market participants are now scrambling to find the bargains as returns vanish once again.