Issuers seek best solution as regulators move the goalposts

European banks have rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job of issuing loss-absorbing instruments to meet the new capital demands of Basel III, with another €80bn of capital printed across additional tier one (AT1) and tier two in 2014. AT1 accounted for 48% of capital volume in 2014 as banks made strides towards filling their 1.5% of risk weighted assets bucket. Still more banks have made debuts in the AT1 market in 2015 and many early issuers are expected to return to take advantage of cheaper pricing later this year.