Belfius has become the first Belgian bank to set up a public sector Pandbrieven programme and will go on an extensive roadshow later this month to lay the groundwork for an inaugural benchmark, according to an official at the issuer.

Barclays, Belfius, Commerzbank, LBBW and Natixis have the mandate. The public sector covered bond programme is for Eu10bn, and was finalised in July. The issuer had previously told The CBR that it was aiming to have a public sector programme established after the summer.

The roadshow will last for two weeks, until 30 September, according to Ellen Van Steen, head of long term funding at Belfius, and will involve the bank presenting its first half year results, which will be released next Wednesday (10 September), and explaining the new public Pandbrieven programme.

She said that the public Pandbrieven programme was set up to diversify the bank’s funding sources.

“As financing the Belgian public sector is one of our main activities, it was logical to set up the programme,” she said. “We will issue off both the mortgage and public Pandbrieven programmes, depending on market conditions.”

Belfius is one of three Belgian banks to issue Pandbrieven. It has five benchmarks outstanding under its mortgage programme, the most recently issued being a Eu500m 10 year deal that came at 25bp over mid-swaps in mid-June.