ANZ and Caffil have joined Nordea Bank Finland in the covered bond pipeline, with the latter two expected to kick off issuance for 2014 tomorrow (Tuesday) followed by ANZ the day after, but bankers are also anticipating FIG moves in other markets as the week progresses.

Nordea announced its mandate on Friday (see previous coverage here), with Australia’s ANZ Banking Group and Caisse Française de Financement Local stating their plans today (Monday), ANZ doing so after on Thursday having announced a mandate for a US dollar senior unsecured deal.

In euros deal mandates in FIG were at the time of writing confined to covered bonds, although syndicate bankers said this was not an indication of a trend and that the senior unsecured market would also feature in the early year activity.

“There’s a lot of sniffing and looking going on and I would definitely expect an uptick on the senior side,” said one.

Another echoed this perspective, saying that it was merely “coincidence” that the first mandates of 2014 are for covered bonds, and that by the end of this week or early next week the FIG pipeline will be “quite balanced”, including senior unsecured and bank capital deals. Svenska Handelsbanken has announced the mandate for a Tier 2 transaction, for example.

Today is a public holiday in several parts of Europe, which syndicate bankers said contributed to a relatively quiet start to the new year in terms of deals and mandate announcements.

Caffil and Nordea are expected to get the ball rolling in covered bonds tomorrow, according to syndicate bankers, with more mandate announcements also on the cards.

One said that none of the mandates that have been announced so far come as any real surprise, and that the issuers are looking to secure “first mover advantage”.

Caffil has mandated Barclays, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, LBBW and Natixis for a 10 year obligations foncières issue, with syndicate officials suggesting it could price a deal in the mid 30s over mid-swaps, possibly inside that. One put 10 year French government bonds at 27bp-28bp over on an asset swap basis, while another cited 31bp over mid-swaps bid for interpolated OATs and the mid 40s over bid for a Caffil 2028 issue.

Caffil issued two euro benchmarks in 2013, a Eu1bn seven year in July and a Eu500m 15 year at the end of September.

Nordea has not announced a maturity in connection with its transaction, but investor feedback is said to be skewed towards five years. The issuer’s last euro benchmark was a Eu1.5bn five year that was priced at 7bp over in August.

Nordea starts a silent period on Wednesday ahead of the release of its fourth quarter results on 30 January, and a syndicate banker said that this was behind the timing of Nordea’s move to tap the euro benchmark covered bond market.

Nordea is working with BNP Paribas, HSBC, Nordea and UniCredit.

The intention for ANZ, meanwhile, is to proceed with a transaction on Wednesday to allow for an “orderly” deal progression, according to a syndicate banker at one of the leads – ANZ, Barclays, BNP Paribas and UBS.

Like Nordea ANZ has not announced a maturity, but a syndicate official away from the leads said that a five, seven or 10 year deal would be fit ANZ’s curve. A five year would “fit nicely” but the issuer may wish to opt for a slightly longer maturity given that its curve between five and seven years is fairly flat, he said.

He said the issuer’s decision to tap the US market with a senior unsecured transaction and euros in covered bonds was interesting, and that ANZ was looking to “rejuvenate” its euro curve. Its last euro benchmark covered bond was a Eu1bn five year from the end of August, which he said had underperformed. The September 2018 deal was priced at 17bp over mid-swaps, and the syndicate banker said the bonds were quoted at 19bp/15bp over, with 2020s at 24bp/20bp over and 2022s at 29bp/25bp over.