Groupe BPCE's BPCE SA priced an offering of senior nonpreferred debt in Japanese yen on Jan. 20, becoming the first French bank to do so in the samurai bond market, Bloomberg News reported the same day.

BPCE priced a total of ¥142.7 billion in debt in the three-tranche offering, which included a ¥69.6 billion tranche of senior nonpreferred debt, a new class of debt designed to comply with global rules on total loss-absorbing capacity. The five-year senior nonpreferred tranche was priced at 0.64%, representing a spread twice that on 10-year senior debt from the bank.

Earlier in the week, BPCE also confirmed the pricing on a separate €1 billion issuance of senior nonpreferred debt. Those notes, which mature Jan. 18, 2023, were priced with a fixed coupon of 1.125% at 99.879% of their aggregate nominal amount.

Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole CIB, Mizuho Securities, Natixis and UniCredit Bank AG served as joint lead managers on the euro offering.