World Bank

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is the latest emerging market to approach international financing institutions for help to deal with Covid-19.

More than 100 charities and other organisations are urging that developing countries' debt payments be cancelled this year. They have called for interest and principal payments to be withheld from public and private sector lenders.

Debt relief, restructuring and trillions of dollars of official institution funding are all speeding down the tracks towards emerging markets, as the number of countries with desperate financing needs across the world rapidly stacks up. Ross Lancaster, Burhan Khadbai, Mariam Meskin, Phil Thornton and Oliver West report.

The most vulnerable emerging market sovereigns won a lifeline on Wednesday as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund called for relief on their debt burdens.

The pace of emerging markets borrowers’ requests for official institution funding, amid the shocking deterioration of their bond markets, is picking up pace. On Sunday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had discussed using International Monetary Fund resources to fight the economic impact of Covid-19.

The World Bank has increased its funding allowance for its 2019-20 fiscal year by $5bn. It now plans to raise between $55bn and $65bn, up from its previous $55bn-$60bn target, according to a funding official at the supranational.

This week’s funding scorecard looks at the progress supranationals have made in their funding programmes during a first quarter wracked by volatility.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, March 16. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

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 World Bank and Assicurazioni Generali are each giving the insurance-linked securities (ILS) they issue a sustainability label, as the market attempts to burnish its credentials for investors concerned with environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Both issuers are imitating conventional green bond programmes by focusing on direct use of proceeds, but there are also debates around issues such as freed-up insurance capital and what governments do with funds released from catastrophe bonds.

World Bank surprised some market participants by announcing a five year dollar benchmark shortly after the Federal Reserve slashed rates in response to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, but before the details of the Fed's plans were unveiled at a press conference.