Covered Bonds

The Covid-19 pandemic caused severe disruption to financial markets in 2020-2021. During this difficult time, the Bank of Canada and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions took a number of actions to build resilience and improve the stability of the Canadian financial system. Federally regulated financial institutions were, among other things, permitted the privilege to pledge covered bonds with the central bank, which provided access to long-term repos and benefited from preferential regulatory treatment of loans subject to payment deferrals.

A handful of borrowers are circling the Nordic markets with an eye to printing after the end of first quarter results. But the looming blackouts have not deterred every type of credit from tapping the market as a range of corporate, covered bond and financial issuers placed paper this week.

Progress in sustainability-linked finance for banks has flipped from glacial to dizzying with Berlin Hyp’s €500m sustainability-linked bond this week.

Banks are optimistic that sustainability-linked bonds have a bright future as part of their funding toolkits, after Berlin Hyp became the first financial institution to land a deal in the format this week. More trades are already on the way and market participants are stepping up their efforts to break down the remaining barriers for FIG borrowers.

A widening in the basis swap between three and six month Euribor and a recent rise in yields have improved the attractiveness of covered bonds for a proportion of investors. But for many others, bonds that trade well through swaps in the secondary market are only fit for the European Central Bank.

Investors wasted little time placing orders for NIBC Bank’s €500m 10 year conditional pass-through covered bond that was issued on Wednesday, reflecting that it offered the highest spread of any covered bond issued this year by any bank in core Europe. This is also likely to be a very rarely issued structure.

Although UK covered bonds are trading at their tightest levels for the last year, they still offer a decent pick-up versus some international peers. With the UK’s vaccine rollout and growth expectations showing promise, spreads may well tighten. But there is a lack of fresh supply. Some is needed to improve price discovery and catalyse performance.

DZ Hyp raised €1bn of eight year covered bond funding flat to its curve on Tuesday in what bankers called a ‘textbook execution’.

Santander has lost a covered bond trader to Barclays, which itself is in the market for a covered bond analyst after losing two recently.

Covered bond spreads look set to tighten further over the next few months, traders told GlobalCapital on Monday. But even so, medium term macro-economic uncertainty is curtailing risk appetite as spread potential is limited and a market-wide sell-off may follow in the medium term.

DekaBank’s sub-benchmark Pfandbrief issued on Monday was more than three times subscribed and was priced through fair value, boding well for a follow-on Pfandbrief from DZ Hyp for launch on Tuesday.

Berlin Hyp will become the first bank to issue a sustainability-linked bond (SLB), after it announced plans on Friday for a deal with a coupon that will step up if the issuer fails reduce the carbon intensity of its loan book by 40% over the next 10 years.