Covered Bonds

Martin Roland has moved from FIG syndication at LBBW to funding and debt investor relations.

A good number of covered bond issuers are planning deals, and some had hoped to open books on Monday, but market conditions were too volatile. The market is open provided careful attention is paid to name, spread, tenor and timing — with the key to success down to careful preparation, bankers told GlobalCapital on Monday.

The European Central Bank's new stimulus package will lower supply and boost demand for covered bonds, suggesting that ECB president Christine Lagarde will in fact 'close spreads' in the asset class. For now though, valuations remain under pressure and spreads are likely to widen in the short term.

With primary bond markets all but shut, thanks to the volatility caused by the spread of the coronavirus, banks are expected to rely more heavily on “cheapest to deliver” — and more reliable — sources of funding provided by central banks and the covered bond market, bankers told GlobalCapital on Thursday.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) became the first bank outside Europe to issue a deeply negative yielding covered bond in a good size on Wednesday. The transaction provided a beacon for other issuers and was perfectly timed to benefit from a window of market stability between Monday’s and Thursday’s shocking volatility.

Market analysts reacted positively this week to the Spanish Treasury’s Cédulas consultation, but the thorny question of how the market will transition to the new regime has potentially negative implications.

Covered bond spreads jumped wider on Monday in response to even sharper moves in the credit market. The selling was modest in volume and, with market makers protecting their bids, trades were done far wider than indicative levels.

Bond issuers returned to the primary market this week showing greater resilience than many expected. The intense gyrations gripping underlying rates and equities mean that deals are likely to be far from easy to do for some time as the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak grip global markets.

Eika Boligkreditt this week placed the most deeply negative yielding non-German covered bond since credit market volatility spiked two weeks ago. The deal, issued on Thursday, will help participants gauge just how far spreads have moved, setting the market up for more active issuance in March when demand is expected to materialise on the back of a considerable widening in the Bund/swap spread.

Luminor Bank attracted strong demand for its debut covered bond on Wednesday, the first under Estonia’s legal framework and the first from the Baltic region. Despite a negative reoffer yield, it attracted a higher subscription ratio than any other five year euro benchmark issued this year.

Commerzbank reopened the covered bond market on Tuesday by pricing its largest Pfandbrief in a decade, following a meltdown in global finance last week.

Luminor Bank is expected to issue its debut covered bond after successfully concluding a roadshow this week. The deal will be the first Baltic covered bond under the Estonian legal framework.