Covered Bonds

Bank balance sheets are set to expand and Intesa's will be no exception. It will mean an an increased reliance on central bank funding. But apart from this, the Italian bank's mix of funding is likely to remain unchanged from February with the emphasis on regulatory capital. But as Alessandro Lolli, head of group treasury and finance told GlobalCapital, the bank has great flexibility in navigating its capital raising during the pandemic.

The gush of central bank repo-eligible supply in the covered bond market has reduced collateral protection by more than 50 percentage points, in some cases. And with a precipitous drop in the pace of mortgage production likely to follow, investors will be obliged to discriminate between issuers that commit to maintaining minimum levels of overcollateralisation (OC) and those that don’t.

LHV Pank has mandated leads for its inaugural deal and the second ever to be launched under the newly established Estonian covered bond legal framework.

Unlike many banks, NordLB had been actively reducing its balance sheet well before the coronavirus crisis hit, so its need for funding is more modest than most. Though it seems likely Pfandbrief issuance will eventually return, German borrowers are hesitant to come to market, especially when there is cheap, plentiful central bank funding available. And, while Pfandbrief investors are well protected, it seems likely that a slow recovery in the commercial real estate market and a more questionable outlook for SME lending, will take its toll on lenders’ business models.

Nykredit tapped its 1% callable covered bond due 2050 on Wednesday to take it up to Dkr100bn (€13.4bn), making it the biggest long-dated covered bond ever publicly issued in Europe and highlighting the availability of long-dated funding for banks looking for alternatives to the glut of central bank liquidity made available to fight the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

BPCE attracted more demand from more investors than any other French covered bond issued in at least eight years when it launched its first green covered bond on Tuesday. The outcome sent a strong signal to other borrowers seeking cost-effective, long term funding that central banks do not offer.

Unlike many other banks, ANZ has had no need to draw on central bank emergency liquidity lines during the coronavirus pandemic. Its risk-weighted assets have grown but this has been offset by greater retail deposits. And, as head of funding Mostyn Kau revealed, what subordinated debt issuance it does have to do will be for regulatory reasons rather than to do with Covid-19 crisis funding.

Investors lapped up Axa Bank Europe’s €250m tap of a 15-year Obligations Foncieres on Monday and showed that demand for ultra-long dated paper is back on the table. And, being considerably longer than the funding offered by the European Central Bank, the transaction should give a boost to the primary market, despite downbeat supply expectations.

The UK covered bond market may be about to shrink. Deals maturing this year could well be refinanced at the Bank of England, while issuers could see their mortgage pools shrink as a result of the lockdown.

French covered bond issuer Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) ventured into unexplored territory at the end of last week to print the longest ever covered bond.

Mortgage payments deferred under national payment holiday schemes, designed to help homeowners through lockdowns, are adding risk to the covered bond market. Concerns were brought into sharp relief this week when Banco BPM amended programme documentation to include such loans, writes Bill Thornhill.

The covered bond market continued to perform well on Wednesday with the ultra-long end of the Dutch curve posting the strongest performance, albeit on no trading flow. French and Canadian deals are also performing well, even as bids were hit in good size. But one major investor said he was aghast at the poor overall liquidity and blamed central bank policy.