Canada

Pete Osborne, a former director at Singapore Exchange (SGX), has resurfaced at Canadian exchange operator TMX Group in London as head of European equity trading sales.

CPPIB Capital will sell its first ever green bond this week, coming on the heels of a French region’s foray into green and sustainability bonds.

Royal Bank of Canada followed Toronto Dominion into the sterling covered bond market this week, pricing its first deal of the year at the same spread as its peer. Given a relatively high number of covered bond redemptions this year, RBC could well return.

Toronto Dominion Bank issued the only two covered bond benchmarks in what was otherwise a desolate week for the FIG sector. Despite exceptionally volatile market conditions, the euro and sterling transactions went well leading a syndicate banker to conclude that TD "owns" the covered bond market.

Toronto Dominion took advantage of a brief respite from volatility in the European government bond market to issue a €1bn seven year transaction on Wednesday.

Five year covered bonds issued this week from a trio of issuers got the best executions with the most generously priced Canadian deal from the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (CCDJ) earning the most praise.

Covered bond deals issued in the five to seven year part of the curve on Wednesday by ING Belgium, Berlin Hyp (BHH) and The Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec (FCDQ) were all well received and stood in stark contrast to a 10 year from Nationwide.

The World Bank and Export Development Canada hit screens with large sterling floaters in what was among the busiest weeks of the year in the currency.

Canadian banks will be able to issue debt to meet their total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) requirements from September, with issuers focused on the costs of what they expect will be an otherwise straightforward process of rolling over their maturing debt.

Canada’s office of the superintendent of financial institutions (OSFI) is expected to raise limits on covered bond issuance, paving the way for additional supply from established and new names.

The moribund dollar covered bond market is set for a renaissance as the cost advantage compared with other currencies and other sources of wholesale funding has improved. Issuers ought to be renewing alternative sources of demand.

The European Central Bank’s Ad Visser acknowledged its "flexible" approach to covered bond purchases at the European Covered Bond Council’s plenary meeting held in Vancouver on Wednesday. His remark was made in response to a question about whether the ECB was reducing its primary market orders by 10% to a maximum of 30% of a deal’s size.