Covered Bonds

Estonia’s LHV Pank sold its first covered bond on Tuesday, attracting very good demand for the sub-benchmark deal, which provided it with long term funding from new investors.

Deutsche Hypo took advantage of the public Pfandbrief market before the coronavirus crisis struck and since then has been busy issuing privately placed senior deals. Spreads have since tightened, which should help issuance bounce back. But ready access to favourable European Central Bank repo funding means supply will be restricted. Some parts of the German commercial real estate market are likely to be facing trouble too, but even so, Pfandbrief investors are well protected.

Strong market conditions and tight spreads should encourage a few covered bond issuers to consider returning to the market in June, and though balance sheet optimisation is likely to remain the biggest driver of primary market activity, a surge in covered bond redemptions will play a critical role.

DNB entered 2020 better capitalised than ever, and having taken the opportunity to get ahead with its regulatory funding at the end of last year, it was also better financed than ever. Even so, following the regulator's decision to delay implementation of MREL target by one year, DNB could return to the covered bond market in the latter half of 2020.

Features in UK covered bond programmes offer limited protection and could lead to a delay in the classification of defaulted loans, Moody’s said this week. Meanwhile in Europe, regulators have muddied the waters on payment moratoria legislation.

Société Générale SFH has issued a second Obligations de Financement de l’Habitat (OFH) deal as a security token using a protocol that can be fully integrated with other blockchains and, for the first time, was settled using the Banque de France’s newly developed digital currency and structured with industry-aligned smart contracts.

Axa Bank SCF became the first bank since February to issue a 20 year covered bond — showing investors' growing appetite for risk. It also offered encouragement to eurozone issuers with long term funding needs to return to the market — especially given the strong performance of deals eligible for the ECB's purchase programmes compared with those that are not.

The stream of French covered bond deals was interrupted on Wednesday when KBC Bank returned to the market for the first time in more than two years to issue a long five year, priced slightly inside its own curve. The oversubscribed order book, reflected investor anxiety about the supply drought.

Mediobanca frontloaded regulatory issuance and completed its funding plan before the coronavirus crisis struck. While its corporate loan book has increased, deposit inflows have also improved which means the bank is in no hurry to return to the public market according to head of group treasury, Carlo Masini, and head of funding, Paolo Labbozzetta.

Michael Sansen, a trader specialising in public sector and covered bonds, has joined Citi after spending his entire career at ING.

Covered bond investors wasted little time in placing big orders on Tuesday for the largest ever green deal issued in Swedish kronor — a five year floating rate transaction secured on energy efficient mortgages from Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt (Spabol). At the same time, Credit Mutuel Arkéa issued a long 10 year with blow-out demand, reflecting a material concern that covered bond supply, net of central bank purchases and redemptions, will be deeply negative this year.

Lloyds Bank decided to tender some of its covered bonds in three major currencies this week in what it called a “prudent approach” towards its liquidity base. The move could prompt more issuance in the asset class this year in an effort to refinance some of the tendered securities, but it could also decrease liquidity at the short end of the curve, given the cheaper refinancing alternatives open to banks.