The Swedish FSA announced details of tighter capital requirements today (Thursday), which market participants said provide welcome but only partial clarification of the capital regime in Sweden, with outstanding questions about Pillar 2 requirements obscuring the outlook for AT1 supply.
The Nordic first quarter reporting season is well underway, with Danske today (Thursday) the latest to announce results. Mats Anderson, equity research analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, says that results have been marginally better than expected, boding well for the rest of the year.
The Swedish Bankers’ Association has suggested changes to the prevailing Basel III proposal for a Net Stable Funding Ratio to rectify what it sees as punitive treatment of covered bonds and incentives for banks to favour less stable funding sources.
Nordea Bank priced a $2.25bn triple tranche senior unsecured bond on Monday, the last day of the first quarter, with a syndicate official at one of the leads noting that a larger deal may have been possible.
Svenska Handelsbanken priced an inaugural Kangaroo senior unsecured benchmark on Tuesday, a A$650m (Eu438m, Skr3.93bn) dual tranche issue that was part of a mini-wave of Australian-targeted European issuance benefitting from local majors being in blackout, according to a syndicate banker.
The Swedish Bankers’ Association has called for liquidity assistance by central banks to be included in reporting of encumbered and unencumbered assets in a response to a European Banking Authority (EBA) consultation that finished last Thursday (20 March).
Stadshypotek priced a Eu1.25bn five year covered bond on Monday, the joint tightest post-crisis non-German Pfandbrief euro benchmark covered bond, with an official at the issuer noting that the prevailing euro market provided a “unique” funding opportunity for Scandinavian issuers.
SEB priced a $1.5bn (Eu1.09, Skr9.63bn) five year senior unsecured issue on Tuesday, with an official at the issuer noting a very strong response in terms of the volume and quality of demand.
The Swedish Bankers’ Association is lowering guidance on the LTV threshold above which new mortgages need to be amortised from 75% to 70%, while Riksbank governor Stefan Ingves said there is a case for increasing the mortgage risk weight floor to 25%.
Swedbank on Monday priced a Eu750m (Skr6.64bn) five year senior unsecured transaction in its third visit to the benchmark debt capital markets this year, and, at 52bp over, the deal was the tightest five year senior unsecured euro benchmark to date in 2014.