Caisse d Amortissement de la Dette Sociale

With SSA primary market conditions red hot, it would be wise for French public sector borrowers to crack on with their funding ahead of a double whammy of risk events in May.

Euro agencies favoured fives over the last seven days, as KfW smashed its order record and a pair of French agencies brought taps at sizes multiple times their target. With some SSA bankers saying conditions are the best they have ever seen, supply looks likely to keep coming.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale will have a slightly higher funding programme in 2019 than 2018, the agency said this week, as French government borrowing costs rose.

This week's scorecard looks at the funding progress of French agencies as we move into February.

Public sector borrowers this week set new landmarks in what has already been an exemplary year in dollars, as KfW sold the largest 10 year dollar benchmark in 2.5 years and the Nordic Investment Bank priced the tightest deal versus swaps of 2018 so far. SSA bankers are confident that conditions will hold at both ends of the curve — allowing the possibility of further long end supply and even lower short end spreads.

Public sector borrowers wrapped up a trio of short end dollar trades on Tuesday, with the tightest issuer able to grind in pricing to the lowest level from an SSA this year and the higher yielding names finding ample demand despite ending up at similar spreads. SSA bankers are confident that the strong conditions will also ring true at the long end for KfW, which has mandated for its first 10 year dollar benchmark in nearly three years.

Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale’s funding need for 2018 will be less than half that of 2017, the French agency said on Tuesday. It also provided an update on its merger with Agence France Trésor, the French sovereign debt agency.

Investors in public sector dollar deals have found themselves forced to accept brutally tight pricing as issuers drive in spreads to round off their funding programmes.

Three agencies launched short end dollar transactions on Tuesday, two of which managed to pull their spreads into impressively tight levels.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades), the French social security debt agency, is set to form a much closer working arrangement with Agence France Trésor, the French sovereign debt office, in an effort to reduce operational risk.

There was strong praise this week from senior SSA bankers for Patrice Ract Madoux, the long-serving chairman of Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale, who is retiring from the position.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale has appointed a veteran of the French social security sector to succeed its long-serving chairman Patrice Ract Madoux, who is retiring.