From the Collaborative Bond and Money Market Data Portal
Definition: A Maple bond is a CAD-denominated bond issued by a non-Canadian entity in the Canadian Foreign Bond market.
Data Model: In the CMDportal Collaborative Bond and Money Market Data Model, "Maple" appears in the field Distribution with the attribute Maple.
Issuers use the Maple bond format mainly to tap a deep CAD investor base, diversify funding and, in the right market windows, achieve competitive or even cheaper all‑in funding versus their home market once swapped.
Access to CAD investors and liquidity
Maple bonds give foreign issuers direct access to Canadian pension funds, insurers and asset managers that have structural demand for CAD assets and large balance sheets.
This investor base may not routinely buy the same name in USD/EUR/GBP format, so Maple can be genuinely incremental demand.
Funding cost and swap arbitrage
Issuers look at the CAD curve plus the CAD–home currency cross‑currency basis; in the right conditions, issuing in CAD and swapping back can match or beat home‑market levels on an all‑in basis.
Periods of a favourable CAD basis and strong Canadian demand have sometimes made Maple funding cheaper for high‑grade names than USD or EUR prints of similar tenor.
Investor and currency diversification
Maple bonds diversify both the investor base (new geography, often buy‑and‑hold accounts) and the currency mix of liabilities, which treasurers value for resilience and signalling in global capital‑markets relationships. For groups with Canadian assets or revenues, CAD liabilities can also provide a natural hedge rather than a purely synthetic one.
Stable market and documentation ease
Canada offers a relatively stable macro backdrop, strong sovereign rating and a well‑developed institutional market, which supports longer tenors and benchmark‑style deals for solid credits.
European issuers in particular can often adapt existing EMTN documentation for CAD issuance, reducing legal and frictional costs versus setting up a brand‑new local programme.
In practice, issuers are there when (a) CAD swap levels work, (b) they want incremental, sticky Canadian accounts in the book, and (c) execution risk is acceptable despite somewhat thinner secondary liquidity versus their core markets.
Access to foreign credit: Canadian investors get foreign credit exposure (supras, global banks, large corporates) without FX risk, which helps them diversify sector and geography within a CAD portfolio.
Investment Return: Maple deals typically offer a pickup over comparable domestic Canadian credits, reflecting both credit and liquidity premia, which keeps demand robust when spreads are attractive.
