BME’s Fixed Income Market registers issues worth 7.8 billion euros in December

• Financial institutions show increased interest in covered bonds and securitisations issues
• Within the public sector, the Spanish regional administrations have once again tapped the market for financing

AIAF, BME’s Fixed Income market, registered issues to the value of 7.8 billion euros in the first half of December. This is the highest month-on-month figure so far this year and shows the dynamism of the Fixed Income market as the year 2019 draws to a close.

Worthy of note were – within the Corporate Debt segment - the operations with covered bonds carried out by financial institutions. The most relevant were the issues by Santander, for an amount of 1,75 billion; Bankinter, worth1.2 billion, and Bankia, with a value of 160 million. To these mortgage bond transactions must be added the securitisations launched by CaixaBank PYMES, worth 2.4 billion euros and by BBVA RMBS, for 1.8 billion, through which these institutions have put their loan portfolios to work to obtain new liquidity.

Besides, the issues of CoCos, AT1s, subordinated debt and senior-non-preferred debt that had been launched by financial institutions in the United Kingdom to meet their liquidity ratios, as a result of Brexit, have returned to Spain and been registered with AIAF.

In addition to these placements, which have already been listed, new issues are scheduled for admission next week in AIAF of covered bonds from Banca March, regional covered bonds from Banco Sabadell and securitisations from Santander PYMES, Cajamar and Cetelem.

The total volume placed in covered bonds and securitisations in AIAF totalled 30.3 billion and 13.8 billion euros, respectively during the year, up 12% from last year. These have been the financial instruments with the highest levels of activity in this BME market within the private sector segment, accounting for 47% of the total volume issued by credit institutions.

In December and within the Public Debt segment, it is worth mentioning the admission of three issues from Xunta de Galicia for an amount of 275 million euros, and the bond issues from Castilla y León and the Madrid region for 70 and 75 million euros, respectively. Throughout the year the Spanish regional administrations have actively issued bonds, and, as a whole, their issues totalled 5.4 billion in 2019.

Gonzalo Gómez Retuerto, General Manager of BME Renta Fija, points out that “the growth rates posted in 2019 clearly show BME's firm commitment to the development of the Fixed Income markets, which can be relied upon for funding by public and private issuers of any size and in which all kinds of national and international investors can participate”.