Luxembourg - The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) placed today a €8 billion 5-year bond maturing on 22 January 2019. The issuance spread was fixed at mid swap plus 7 basis points. This implies a reoffer yield for investors of 1.278%. The coupon rate is 1.25%

HSBC, Morgan Stanley and RBS acted as lead managers. The issue has drawn strong demand, with close to €12 billion in orders received from investors worldwide.

Christophe Frankel, CFO and Deputy CEO said: "The beginning of the new year has been positive for the EFSF. Today's transaction is an excellent start to achieving the EFSF's funding target of €34.5 billion for 2014. In addition, I am pleased to note the publication of the EBA's recommendation that EFSF and ESM bills and bonds are considered as extremely high quality liquid assets".

Further details on the EBA recommendation are available on the EFSF website

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