Covered Bonds

LBBW this week issued a long three year public sector Pfandbrief at the tightest spread of the year, showing just how receptive investors are to supply, particularly for strong names in short tenors.

Never mind the fact that Italian banks are unable to fund themselves economically. If a few can demonstrate access to the Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite market, the European Central Bank’s impending third targeted long term refinancing operation (TLTRO) might look less like a bailout.

Deutsche Bank returned to the covered bond market to issue a perfectly choreographed Pfandbrief. The deal was launched into a relatively quiet market and quickly attracted strong demand, enabling leads to set terms very early in the day despite underlying market concerns.

Half of the Covered Bond Mark is derived from a survey of market participants. The other half is calculated using a range of key metrics — such as the deal’s subscription ratio, its performance, the granularity of the order book, and the transaction’s size.

Bids for recently issued covered bond deals are trading close to or tighter than their reoffer spreads but with the UK parliament’s crunch vote on the European withdrawal agreement due on Wednesday, scope for a further widening cannot be ruled out. Especially if new issue premiums continue to reprice curves.

ANZ became the first non-UK bank to issue a Sonia-linked covered bond on Friday. The competitive and sizeable funding could well spur follow-on issuance from another non-UK bank early next week.

Crédit Agricole reached considerable size expectations and raised €1.5bn of 10 year covered bond funding on Monday. A day later Caffil raised a not insignificant €1.25bn with a well subscribed two part six and 15 year offering.

Investors flocked to Nordic and Canadian covered bonds issued this week by DNB Boligkreditt, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and National Bank of Canada, perhaps reflecting a view that their spreads are well positioned to withstand the European Central Bank’s withdrawal from covered bond market.

A decision by Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen Girozentrale (Helaba) to issue a rare three year covered bond as part of a two part offering, paid off and put its covered bond offering head and shoulder above other deals issued this week by BayernLB, HVB and UniCredit Bank Austria.

Westpac issued the first dollar covered bond of the year this week, while its New Zealand subsidiary hit the euro market following the demand unearthed by an earlier deal from ANZ New Zealand.

Credito Emiliano this week issued the first Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite of the year, sending a strong signal to issuers struggling to fund in the senior market. The Italian bank followed Deutsche Bank SA which issued the first Spanish deal of 2019.

Credito Emiliano has successfully issued the first Obbligazioni Bancarie Garantite of the year. Some bankers believe the bond issue sends a strong signal to issuers struggling to fund in the senior market and should therefore catalyse supply, but other have their doubts.