IFC

Kommunalbanken snagged NZ$500m ($324.5m) on Friday with the second largest Kauri bond of the year. Interest in the New Zealand dollar is high, with NZ$1.1bn worth of SSA Kauri deals printed so far this month — and more are set to follow.

Sovereign, supranational and agency bond issuers are mobilising their resources to support the fight against Covid-19. The below table details the bonds they have issued, specifically in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Finland’s Municipality Finance returned to the domestic New Zealand dollar bond market on Friday after a long absence, to raise its largest Kauri bond since 2008.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has launched the first systematic process by an issuer to formally integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into choosing its bookrunners. Senior funding officials and sustainability bankers have welcomed the initiative as an important evolution in the use of ESG in capital markets, write Burhan Khadbai and Jon Hay.

Egypt’s debut green bond, which had been expected to come to market in the first half of the year, is on hold, according to sources. But although the coronavirus pandemic has impacted issuance for issuers such as Egypt, the green bond market is far from dead.

With one month to go of its 2019/2020 financial year, the International Finance Corporation has revised down its funding target.

The International Finance Corp returned to the Australian dollar bond market to fund its response to the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, while at the end of last week BNG capped the strongest month for SSA Kangaroo deals for over nine months.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress supranationals have made in their funding programmes as we reach the end of May and enter June.

A quartet of SSAs borrowed a combined A$940m ($613.4m) into the Kangaroo market this week, spurring the SSA Aussie dollar market on to its best monthly volume in over nine months.

Social bonds are proving to be a key part of SSAs fight against the coronavirus, with $10.6bn equivalent printed since the start of the pandemic. Having already tapped core currency markets last month, this week a pair of supranationals turned towards niche currencies to fund their response to the pandemic. With demand for the social format high, both bankers and funding officials are hopeful the new investor interest will stick around after the pandemic passes.

The World Bank has increased its funding allowance for its 2019-20 fiscal year by $5bn. It now plans to raise between $55bn and $65bn, up from its previous $55bn-$60bn target, according to a funding official at the supranational.

Despite the terrible effects of the coronavirus pandemic on capital markets, the MTN market is open and functioning.