French Sovereign

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades), the agency responsible for financing and amortising French social debt, plans to raise almost twice as much as it did this year and more than 10 times what it had initially expected to raise in 2020 before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

France and Belgium announced borrowing programmes for 2021 this week. France is aiming for the same amount as this year, while Belgium is paring back its needs.

France has lined up its 2021 funding programme, looking to sell some long end syndications and to return to the green bond market for its sophomore outing in the format.

Italy returned to the private placement market to print one of the year’s largest MTNs on Thursday. The deal stood out this week, since issuance in the market has started to wind down ahead of Christmas.

Two public sector borrowers hit the euro bond market on Wednesday, raising what might well be the final benchmark funding of 2020.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes in November.

Société de Financement Local (SFIL) was over 5-1/2 times covered as it brought its long-awaited debut green bond to the market on Friday, allowing it to price well inside fair value.

French agency Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations finished its 2020 syndicated funding programme with a visit to the Swiss market this week, printing an extremely tight deal through the high quality domestic covered bond curve.

The euro SSA market was dominated by French issuers this week, with borrowers working swiftly to finish off their enlarged 2020 funding programmes once the EU had cleared the decks.

Unédic, the French unemployment agency, will look to complete its €15bn funding programme on Thursday, coming to market in the footsteps of the EU’s second outing.

Unédic and Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) still have sizeable amounts of funding to raise before the end of the year and, with only a few weeks remaining, will look to issue after the EU clears the decks this week.

A pipeline of deals is building in the Swiss franc bond market for when the US election is concluded. Among those circling the market is Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, which could finish its 2020 funding with a public benchmark.