Covered Bonds

The majority of covered bond ratings are well protected, but even so, the outlook has clearly turned for the worse as sovereign and issuer downgrades will eventually take their toll — particularly for bonds that could cross key regulatory or investment grade thresholds.

Market participants are expecting a gigantic take-up in the next round of the European Central Bank's Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO III), after the central bank said that it would accept a much broader range of assets as collateral in the scheme. Smaller banks are likely to be among the biggest winners, with the new criteria helping them to look after their liquidity coverage ratios.

The European Central Bank’s clarification of how it buys covered bonds from investors changes nothing, said a leading covered bond asset manager on Wednesday. It would be more effective if the ECB were to offer, like Sweden's Riksbank, more disclosure on the bonds it was interested in buying, he said.

Bank of Montreal (BMO) on Tuesday became the third Canadian covered bond issuer to take advantage of an improvement in Aussie dollar issuance conditions following a relaxation in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s repo requirements.

Covered bond investors have begun to return, primary market spreads have tentatively started to tighten and new issue concessions are coming down — which theoretically bodes well for a broadening of supply. But bankers, battered by the stresses of the last month, remain cautious.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) on Monday became the first covered bond issuer in April to tighten pricing from initial guidance. Other issuers will take confidence from it to consider longer dated funding, offering an alternative to European Central Bank’s repo facilities.

Toronto-Dominion Bank launched the first Australian dollar covered bond of the year on Thursday night, issuing in good size at a similar spread to where it recently issued its dollar covered bond.

The European Mortgage Federation and European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC) has established a task force to address the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative emerges at the same time as the European Banking Authority’s publication of guidelines on the treatment of debt moratoria.

Crédit Agricole and Crédit Mutuel CIC attracted solid demand for their five year covered bonds this week. Although they were among the largest deals seen so far this year, supply is down, and with spreads still elevated, some borrowers are likely to rely more heavily on European Central Bank for funding than the covered bond market.

Crédit Mutuel Home Loan SFH followed Crédit Agricole SFH and BPCE on Thursday with a third French five year covered bond, which was priced at an identical spread. Even though the three issuers have raised almost €5bn between them, covered bond volumes are down this year and, with spreads at elevated levels, issuers will have more reason than ever to tap the European Central Bank for funding.

Helaba has appointed two new syndicate bankers as it looks to bolster its coverage of FIG and SSA clients. The hires are among the first following a restructuring of the German bank’s capital markets business.

Crédit Agricole jump-started the primary covered bond market on Wednesday with a deal that is hoped will re-establish something of a normal rhythm of issuance.