Svenska Handelsbanken made its third visit to the sterling market this year with a £400m (Eu477m, Skr4.27bn) seven year senior unsecured deal on Thursday of last week (14 November).

The Swedish FSA suggested increasing the risk weight floor for mortgages from 15% to 25% upon releasing its latest report on risks in the financial system today (Thursday), citing a very high level of household debt in Swedish households.

Tight spreads tempted SEB to bring forward Q1 2014 issuance plans and launch a Eu1bn seven year covered bond benchmark on Monday, the bank’s head of treasury management told Nordic FIs & Covered.

Stadshypotek priced a Eu1bn seven year covered bond yesterday (Wednesday) to kickstart what could be a series of Nordic FIG deals in euros as issuers from the region emerge from blackouts and face enticing spreads and cross-currency levels.

A proposal by Sweden’s FSA to oblige lenders to suggest mortgage loan amortisation plans to some borrowers could, if implemented, lead to increased paydown rates and eventually a possible decrease in target OC in some Swedish covered bond programmes, according to Standard & Poor’s.

Swedish banks will kick off the Q3 earnings season next week. Alex Sönnerberg, Nordic DCM Origination, Crédit Agricole CIB, considers the prospect of them emerging from blackouts with new euro benchmarks.

SBAB and Svenska Handelsbanken had their ratings affirmed by S&P yesterday (Wednesday), two months after the rating agency placed them on CreditWatch negative.

SEB made an opportunistic foray into the sterling market on Tuesday to launch a £300m (Skr3.08bn, Eu356m) seven year senior unsecured deal that is the longest dated Swedish sterling issue this year.

Skandiabanken has joined the ranks of Swedish covered bond issuers, having last week inaugurated a new covered bond programme with a Skr3.3bn (Eu381m) dual tranche FRN issue backed by a cover pool of Swedish residential mortgages.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) sold a Eu750m (Skr6.51bn) five-and-a-half year senior unsecured bond on Tuesday, taking advantage of an improvement in market conditions to launch an opportunistic trade, an official at the Swedish bank told Nordic FIs & Covered.