Svenska Handelsbanken sold a ¥66.8bn (Skr4.67bn, Eu496m) three tranche Samurai last Friday (28 September) in its third visit to the Japanese market in three years and against a volatile market backdrop.

DNB is closing the first Samurai issue for a European financial institution of 2014 tomorrow (Friday), a ¥81.6bn (Eu573m, Nkr4.78bn) dual tranche five year senior unsecured deal that achieved far broader distribution than the Norwegian bank’s last Samurai.

Svenska Handelsbanken rounded off a Samurai issuance spree from Nordic and other European banks today (Thursday), pricing a ¥50.5bn (Eu396m, Skr3.47bn) four tranche transaction inside Swedish peer Nordea.

Pohjola Bank priced its debut Samurai issue on Wednesday, a ¥30bn (Eu235m) three tranche deal, which the group’s head of funding said marked the beginning of a long term presence that made the work on setting up the programme worthwhile.

Svenska Handelsbanken is set to become the third Nordic issuer to tap the Samurai market within the space of a month, with soft marketing for the Swedish bank’s debut, senior unsecured issue expected to start tomorrow (Friday).

Nordea Bank positioned itself as the tightest European FIG credit in the Samurai market yesterday (Wednesday), pricing a ¥91.2bn (Eu693m, Skr5.96bn) senior unsecured issue inside Rabobank.

Nordea Bank has filed a shelf registration to issue up to ¥500bn of Samurai paper and the same in Uridashi format, and is targeting four Samurai tranches for pricing next week, according to bankers close to the project.