Covered Bonds

French banks have been among the most active issuers of covered bonds so far this year but, with the pace of mortgage origination expected to slow and deposit inflows rising, further supply is less certain with pre-funding for next year becoming an option with doubts over the longevity of the prevailing strong market conditions.

Overcollateralisation (OC) levels have increased on covered bond pools since last year for European issuers, Fitch Ratings said this week. But while issuers in some countries, like the UK, showed a rise above the average, borrowers that have participated in central bank funding, like those in Germany, have managed to keep OC levels down.

Danish covered bond auction season is underway with Nykredit and Nordea announcing sales. August’s auctions also provide the last opportunity to buy certain 30-year callable bonds, of which one is the largest covered bond ever issued.

European Central Bank covered bond buying and mounting covered bond redemptions will exacerbate a technical squeeze — but with Bunds set to underperform swaps, issuers cannot afford to be complacent.

The refurbishment of existing housing stock promises to deliver big strides in cutting global carbon emissions and will provide issuers with a large new stream of green collateral to issue green covered bonds.

Just a few few votes separate the leading contenders in some of the categories in GlobalCapital’s Covered Bond Awards 2020 survey and, with the outcome uncertain, market participants that have not voted yet are encouraged to do so soon.

The European Commission’s proposed amendment to the Liquidity Coverage Ratio Delegated Act suggests covered bonds, such as those issued by NordLB Luxembourg and others, could be excluded, which could extinguish banks’ demand for them. However, it is likely that a solution referencing the covered bond directive will be found.

Covered bond issuers using programmes containing a special purpose vehicle (SPV) have more guidance on the treatment of bad loans and protect bondholders further compared with those using integrated templates, Fitch said this week when assessing the risk coronavirus era mortgage payment holidays pose to the asset class.

The transposition of the covered bond directive into national legislative frameworks is expected to have been completed by all member states within the next six months. But the clock is ticking, and a decision on whether to postpone implementation will be discussed in September.

After reaching a provisional agreement with member states, the European Commission is expected to open a consultation to amend the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) for banks during the fourth quarter. The revision is expected to improve the efficiency of covered bond funding as issuers will now be able to count the same 30 day liquidity held within their covered bond programme towards the LCR too.

The primary market for covered bonds with environmental, social or governance (ESG) purposes has been exceptionally strong this year, and with the European Union’s Taxonomy regulation recently coming into force and strong execution happening even in difficult market conditions, there are high hopes that issuance will scale new heights.

A prospective improvement in the European Central Bank’s deposit tiering facility mitigating the punitive impact of negative rates should be bad for covered bonds, 95% of which are negative-yielding. However, the unprecedented scale of reserves held on deposit with the central bank implies that many key investors will still be looking for anything that pays more than its deposit rate of minus 0.5%.