Covered Bonds

Hypo Tyrol Bank mandated leads on Wednesday for a €500m seven year, to be launched on Thursday.

The Inter-American Development Bank has published a report promoting the use of covered bonds as a funding tool for green developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. But it remains to be seen whether risk-averse covered bond investors are ready to take the plunge into emerging markets — particularly given regulatory hurdles in the swaps market.

NIBC Bank and Axa SFH issued two tightly priced 10 year covered bonds on Tuesday. The French deal was initially slow to build, in contrast to the Dutch conditional pass through (CPT), which got an extra boost because of its positive yield.

AXA Home Loan SFH has mandated leads for a 10 year deal that is expected to be launched in the near future.

UK covered bonds in euros have been modestly supported in the secondary market, as investors view spreads as relatively generous compared to the rest of Europe, and because some say the UK's chance of leaving the European Union at the end of October without reaching an agreement has receded. However ‘the risk of a no-deal exit remains high,’ Standard and Poor’s warned on Monday.

Please take a few minutes to cast your confidential vote 11 recently issued euro covered bonds - including those from Caffil, BPCE and Deutsche Kreditbank.

The European Systemic Risk Board is concerned that covered bonds could be fuelling financial imbalances — a claim that some analysts find tenuous. They do, however, agree that house prices are overvalued, particularly in some Nordic countries where the ESRB has identified a risk of financial contagion.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt will become the fourth Norwegian bank to issue a green covered bond after mandating leads for a roadshow on Thursday. It follows the first green covered bond by Norway’s SR Boligkreditt and a vanilla deal from Møre Boligkreditt issued this week.

Sparebanken Sør Boligkreditt will become the fourth Norwegian bank to issue a green covered bond and has mandated leads for a roadshow following publication of its green and sustainability framework.

The financial institutions bond market has absorbed an enormous volume of supply over the past month, putting a strain on trading levels for outstanding securities. FIG bankers nonetheless expect that spreads could start to tighten once more in the coming weeks, amid a calmer flow of new issuance.

Covered bond market conditions are now improving as the new quarter ushers in a fresh wave of investor cash. With supply expected to fall and the European Central Bank (ECB) likely to step up purchases, spreads should tighten. But investors believe that as real money buyers are inclined to protect their profits, they will gradually retreat from this market.

Investor demand for Møre Boligkreditt’s five year covered bond issued on Wednesday was well in excess of the deal size — even though the negative yield of minus 0.269% means they are bound to lose money if they hold it to maturity.