Covered Bonds

Caisse Francaise de Financement Local (Caffil) has mandated leads for a roadshow to present its new green covered bond framework that, unlike its peers, is secured on public sector assets.

La Banque Postale (LBP) took advantage of a rare rise in yields to issue a positive yielding covered bond on Monday. Its tiny return was enough to ensure success and stood in contrast to the negative-yielding deals issued last week that could have been hit by European Central Bank’s deposit tiering, said bankers.

Debut Italian covered bond issuer Banca Popolare dell’Alto Adige, which is based in South Tyrol and is more commonly known as Volksbank, has mandated leads for a roadshow ahead of a planned deal.

Pfandbriefe issued by Deutsche Pfandbriefbank on Wednesday and Hypo Tirol on Thursday struggled to find enough demand. Though spreads are not expected to widen, the deals showed investors are more discerning as uncertainty builds ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) asset purchases, which are due to commence in November.

Moody’s said on Wednesday that investors’ approval of Lloyds Bank’s request to convert the interest basis on a covered bond from Libor to Sonia was credit positive for the issuer and bodes well for the rest of covered bond and structured finance markets, which must transition to Sonia before 2022.

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.