OREANDA-NEWS. 2013 has been a successful year for KfW in international capital markets. It raised a total of EUR 65.4bn in 218 single transactions in 13 different currencies (2012: EUR 78.7bn). The lower funding volume compared to the previous year is essentially based on high unscheduled amortisation payments in the lending business, which led to a considerable liquidity inflow throughout the year. For 2014, KfW again expects its funding requirement to be at EUR 65-70bn.

In 2013, approximately 59% of funding was performed via eleven highly liquid benchmark bonds in EUR and USD. Again, KfW was the only issuer in the SSA segment to be able to offer benchmark bonds in all important maturities in both currencies. The home currency EUR and the US Dollar remained the most important mainstays of KfW's funding with shares of 48% and 39% respectively. The proportion of other foreign currencies decreased to approximately 13%, due to unfavourable swap dynamics in non-core currencies.

Regarding the investor demand in 2013, it is worth noting that bank treasuries again represented the biggest investor group in KfW's Euro transactions. In the US Dollar, demand by central banks marked an all time high with a share of approximately 60%.

In 2013, the outstanding reputation of KfW's activities in capital markets has been confirmed multiple times. For the fifth time in a row, the US economic magazine “Global Finance” titled KfW as the “World's Safest Bank”. The Australian magazine “KangaNews” awarded KfW for the “SSA Deal of the Year 2013” and the journal “EuroWeek” awarded KfW for its outstanding capital market activities. For the sixth time in a row, the team responsible for bond issuances won the “Most impressive Funding Team” award in the SSA segment. Furthermore, KfW was elected “Best SSA Issuer” by the information services firm “cmdportal”.

In the course of their recurring assessments of KfW's credit quality in 2013, the rating agencies Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poors's again confirmed their top-notch appraisals for both, the long-term and short-term rating of KfW.

Moreover, KfW received excellent sustainability ratings in 2013 by several renowned sustainability rating agencies like Sustainalytics, Oekom Research and Imug for its exceptional sense of responsibility.