World Bank

World Bank extended its euro benchmark curve with flying colours on Wednesday, in a further sign of ample demand for duration amid a low yielding environment.

World Bank hired banks on Tuesday to lead a new 40 year euro sustainable development bond — the supranational’ s longest ever benchmark in the currency. The deal will be the latest example of public sector borrowers venturing longer in the euro market this year.

MTN issuance out of Asia and Sweden provided some of the week’s bright spots in what was otherwise a quiet start to the year. With the public market now in full swing, bankers expect the private placement market to get up to speed in the coming weeks.

Public sector borrowing has been the backbone of the global economy’s response to the unprecedented economic and humanitarian disaster of Covid-19. Sovereigns, supranationals, agencies and regions rose to the new challenge, displaying more ingenuity and ambition than ever in their selection of market, format, currency and tenor and producing some truly spectacular deals. Borrowers throughout the SSA class had to adjust their funding programmes after the first quarter — many to double or even treble their requirements. Contending with inflated funding needs, as well as a market beset by severe dislocations, required unusual flexibility and creativity. Amid all that, SSA borrowers managed not simply to raise the sums required, but to push forward market attitudes to SRI debt and to new risk-free-rates products.

World Bank double-dipped this week, hitting the sterling market on Monday and the dollar market on Tuesday, focusing its efforts longer in the curve to increase the duration of its portfolio.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

The Asian Development Bank made its first foray into the Pakistani rupee market this week, tapping a growing appetite for frontier currency-linked paper.

Dollars was the flavour of the day for public sector borrowers on Tuesday as three issuers headed to the currency, raising a combined $12bn. Two more SSAs will follow with dollar deals on Wednesday.

A pair of SSA issuers are targeting two separate sectors of the dollar market on Tuesday.

A Joe Biden White House offers an opportunity for international and regional multilateral financial institutions to lobby for extra financing to deliver essential assistance to countries hit by Covid-19, according to experts.

World Bank gave the flagging volumes in the SSA Kangaroo bond market a huge boost this week by printing the biggest ever bond in the sector in a single outing with a combined A$1.65bn ($1.19bn) deal across two tranches.

World Bank announced a dual tranche in Australian dollars on Monday — its first syndication in the currency in 2020.