Kexim leads push into alternative currencies

Korean policy bank Export-Import Bank of Korea Kexim announced a Swiss franc deal late on Tuesday afternoon, pushing into a niche currency as US dollar bond markets stall and investors in Asia have turned risk averse. 

“We have decided to tap the Swiss franc market as it is more stable than the US dollar market, and for diversification,” Sung-hwan Choi, Kexim’s chief financial officer, told FinanceAsia in a phone interview. “As we need to raise about $10 billion this year, we need to tap different investor bases,” he added.

The policy bank started marketing a dual tranche three-year floating rate note and a five-and-a half-year...