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Syndicate bankers are scrambling to make sense of the covered bond market, where sentiment has been changeable in recent weeks. Amid volatility and small issuance windows, sustainable bonds have proven a safe strategy to ensure successful deals.

National Grid Electricity Transmission, the UK power transmission company, was out with a dual tranche trade on Thursday, including the first test of the conventional sterling benchmark market in more than a month.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt did not need to offer any premium to investors to complete its debut sale of green covered bonds on Wednesday. The deal adds to a recent flurry of socially responsible investments, which are offering financial issuers very competitive terms.

CaixaBank attracted plenty of demand for its first Covid-19 bond on Wednesday, printing a €1bn deal at a spread that was through the fair value implied by its outstanding securities.

Berlin Hyp left ‘a little bit on the table’ with its new green covered bond on Tuesday. The trade was followed by deal announcements from Kookmin Bank and Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt, both looking to issue in sustainable format.

NN Bank used a quiet market this week to launch the first deal from its new soft bullet covered bond programme. The inaugural deal carried an ‘attractive’ spread and was more than three times subscribed at final terms.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) has launched its second social covered bond of the year in euros, setting the spread for its deal in the middle of its guidance range.

NN Bank unveiled plans on Monday to issue its first covered bond from its newly published soft-bullet programme. At the same time, Berlin Hyp has mandated lead managers for the sale of a new green covered bond.

Turkey Export-Import Bank has raised a €380m loan with a partial guarantee from the World Bank. The deal complements a successful first half of the year for Turkish lenders in capital markets, in which almost all the top tier banks have raised loans.

The Dutch part of Air France KLM has taken a €3.4bn bailout package from the Dutch government, which some analysts said includes the possibility for the state to increase its holding in the entire group.

A worsening in credit conditions has squeezed some borrowers across EMEA out of syndicated loans and into the bilateral market. As syndicated loans bankers face another year of disappointing figures, market players are split over whether this trend will leave a more permanent dent in volumes. Mariam Meskin and Jon Hay report.

European banks jumped into the US dollar market this week, with some issuers clocking up huge savings in the currency versus what their home markets could offer.