Canada

Bank of America and Toronto Dominion tapped into investor demand for bonds linked to environmental, societal and governance (ESG) projects this week.

Ontario Teachers’ Finance Trust made a convincing statement as it hit the dollar bond market on Thursday with new three and 10 year notes that were tightly priced and had record order books.

The World Bank visited the Maple market on Thursday to print the largest ever seven year Canadian dollar bond from a non-domestic issuer, raising C$750m ($569.8m) with a new sustainable development bond (SDB).

Amy West has been named global head of a new sustainable finance and corporate transitions group at TD Securities, which becomes the latest bank to launch a new unit working in this area.

RBC Capital Markets’ expansion in European investment banking came in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has presented it with a very different set of challenges.

NN Bank extended along its soft bullet covered bond curve this week, following its strategy to fund in the ultra-long end. A tightly priced five year from Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) followed the deal later in the week.

Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ), Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt (Svegno) were set to issue covered bonds with zero new issue premiums on Thursday. But after a surprisingly busy week, the market is now "running out of steam" with order books were much slower to build and subscription ratios far lower than transactions issued earlier this week.

Fédération des Caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) mandated leads on Wednesday for a five year and Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) mandated leads for a 10 year deal, to take advantage of exceptionally strong market conditions with both deals likely to be launched on Thursday.

French agency Cades will debut its social bond framework in dollars on Tuesday, less than a week after it raised the largest ever bond in the format with its inaugural issue in euros. It will share the market with the International Development Association (IDA), which is preparing to kick off its 2020/21 funding year with a sustainable development benchmark of its own.

China’s Zijin Mining Co has returned to the loan market for an $800m deal to refinance a borrowing used for its acquisition of Nevsun Resources.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has become the first issuer to guard against negative rates in the sterling market by structuring a Sonia-linked senior deal with an artificially high coupon.

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, July 27. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.