Covered Bonds

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs has improved a scheme guaranteeing export credit agency (ECA) loans, which could help boost the moribund public sector Pfandbrief market.

Germany is calling for bids for state-owned Depfa Bank, the once prolific issuer of Irish and German covered bonds whose parent, Hypo Real Estate, was taken into public ownership as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. There is little chance, however, that the transaction could see the issuer return to the covered bond market.

The European Commission’s best practice guidelines for the financial sector in handling the coronavirus crisis may challenge the safety mechanisms embedded in covered bonds, which have become fundamentally overvalued — especially in countries like Italy where payment holidays have been widely taken up — thereby instigating a sell recommendation from analysts at Barclays.

Italy’s €178bn covered bond market comprises a wide variety of structural nuances that are likely to prove critical to understanding underlying risks, especially when it comes to the way swaps are used and the methodology for asset coverage (ACT) and amortisation tests (AMT), said Moody’s this week.

The GlobalCapital Covered Bond Awards survey is now open and market participants are invited to take a look at the voting shortlists before casting their votes for this year’s best lead managers, issuers and deals.

Fitch played down fears about the impact of payment holidays on UK covered bond pools this week, arguing that high credit quality would offer a strong line of defence against defaults.

GlobalCapital’s Covered BondMarker shows that the five highest scoring covered bonds this year were all issued by French banks. And, based on the Covered BondMarker League Table, ING has, on average, joint lead managed more high ranking deals than any other bank in the past 12 months.

Funding officials from Caffil, Credit Mutuel Arkéa and La Banque Postale gathered in early July to take part in a roundtable to discuss how they navigated their way through the peak of the crisis when covered bond market volatility was at its highest, and how they expect to manage funding in its aftermath, as the pernicious impact of the pandemic takes its toll.

Increasing European unemployment and a subsequent rise in the use of mortgage holidays is set to put pressure on the credit quality of European lenders and their covered bond pools, according to S&P.

Marex, a commodity and derivatives broker, has raised tier two capital in the Swiss franc market through a structured note, which it says is the first to combine a tier two host with an embedded structured product — in this case, exposure to the SMI, the Swiss equity market index.

Investors’ search for yield in covered bonds is growing more challenging by the day, as the market looks set to become more squeezed than ever because of aggressive central bank buying, soaring redemptions and diminished supply.

Kookmin Bank has priced its debut euro covered bond flat to where its higher rated compatriot, Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) would have been expected to come. The deal was said to have attracted additional demand due to its social theme, spurring hopes that further similar issuance would follow.