Svenska Handelsbanken

By offering a hefty pick-up over national champions, Bluestep Bank, a Swedish non-standard mortgage lender, attracted a hefty order book for the second deal from its newly established covered bond platform this week.

Smaller loan loss provisions and high capital ratios have helped Nordic lenders to kick off European bank earnings season in a positive fashion. But analysts are cautious about drawing any conclusions for the rest of the sector.

UniCredit attracted plenty of demand for a €1.25bn sale of non-preferred senior debt in euros on Wednesday, as issuers took advantage of strong funding conditions ahead of the summer period.

Borregaard, the Norwegian paper and chemicals company, has signed sustainability-linked credit facilities totalling Nkr1.5bn (€140m), days after Klaveness brought the loan structure to Norway’s shipping industry.

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.

Royal Bank of Scotland and ING were set on Wednesday to add to a recent run of dollar bond issuance from European banks, with some issuers having clocked up huge savings in the currency versus what their home markets can offer.

SBAB Bank found plenty of room to tighten the pricing on a new preferred senior deal in euros on Wednesday, after investors welcomed the trade’s green credentials.

Svenska Handelsbanken and Swedbank looked to be as transparent as possible when laying out their assumptions for loan losses this week, as part of an effort to reassure the market about their resilience in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

Sweden’s Alfa Laval has amended its revolving credit facilities, with the heavy industry products maker consolidating two old deals into one €900m revolver.

A measured reopening of the primary bond markets in the last month has left banks in a good place to launch new deals after first quarter results, according to FIG DCM officials.

BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole enjoyed the best of conditions as they reopened the market for non-preferred senior bonds from eurozone banks this week, but Société Générale ran into market turbulence when it emerged a day later. Bankers said that showed that demand for the instrument remains limited.

Svenska Handelsbanken was the only financial institution to issue senior debt in euros this week. The issuance came at a time Swedish banks have been granted an extension of two years to comply with regulatory targets for MREL debt, which might make a short-term dent in issuance.