Covered Bonds

The volatility that defined the first week of March for SSA issuers meant the paid higher new issue premiums than before — an average NIP of 1.5bp. But the same metric fell to 0.71bp last week, suggesting growing investor comfort that will have been buoyed by the ECB’s decision last week to step up its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme to meet rising government bond yields — and even those numbers were well below last year’s average SSA NIP of 2.6bp.

Berlin Hyp’s six year green Pfandbrief and Bawag’s 20 year vanilla covered bond attracted strong demand on Tuesday reflecting the paucity of supply, a steadier rates outlook, the rare tenors on offer and, in Berlin Hyp’s case, the green collateral. At the same time VUB mandated leads for a five year covered bond, the first from Slovakia this year.

Sustainability is likely to have a pivotal place in prudential discussions and properties secured on energy efficient mortgages could be in line for more favourable treatment than vanilla ones, the European Covered Bond Council and European Mortgage Federation’s secretary general, Luca Bertalot told GlobalCapital.

Berlin Hyp mandated leads for a rare green Pfandbrief on Monday. The deal has emerged amid a dearth of covered bond supply so far this year and takes advantage of a recent stabilisation in yields at higher levels.

FIG deal arrangers breathed a sigh of relief as the European Central Bank doubled down on its support for bonds this week. They expect to be able to build on the ECB’s latest statement, following a tricky period for primary credit markets.

A flurry of Swiss franc issuance dusted the market this week, as domestic and foreign borrowers entered a more settled market.

The Climate Bonds Initiative has said the evidence for price benefits of green bonds is becoming "increasingly visible". Though proof of a pricing advantage in covered bonds is limited, it was on display this week when Crédit Agricole Italia issued is first green covered bond and more generally, the product attracts a wider investor base.

While European banks have been ducking the covered bond market in favour of central bank liquidity, issuance from the asset class’s newer markets has also been light, but for different reasons. Attention is now on South Korea and Japan, which are seen as the most promising sources of new issuance, according to a senior S&P ratings official.

In the first week of March 2020, the Covid-19 news was already hammering the markets and volatility, as measured by VIX, was almost at levels not seen since 2008. Although the VIX reached 28.57 last week, that figure was only around half the value it was this time last year. With the pandemic still going on Primary Market Monitor takes a look at what has changed in bond execution dynamics since then.

Oldenburgisch Landesbank priced its debut publicly distributed mortgage Pfandbrief on Tuesday, attracting enough demand to ensure the deal size was increased to the top end of the expected range, even as the spread was tightened. But a deterioration in market conditions was blamed for its low subscription ratio.

BPCE attracted good demand for its second dual tranche covered bond of the year, which included a rare 20 year portion. The deal showed that investors are so far impervious to the recent rise in rates.

Crédit Agricole Italia became the first Italian bank to issue a green obbligazioni bancarie garantite on Monday and the first in well over a decade to issue an OBG at a single-digit spread over mid-swaps.