Covered Bonds

After an absence of more than two years, Royal Bank of Canada this week issued its first covered bond in euros, attracting a comfortably oversubscribed order book for a €1.5bn deal which was priced with a skinny new issue concession.

Deutsche Hypo this week priced an eight year Pfandbrief at the widest level of any benchmark sized German covered bond this year, suggesting investor sensitivity is particularly pronounced in this part of the curve when the spread to mid-swaps is negative.

The European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) has appointed Boudewijn Dierick as deputy chairman where he will help advise on a number of key developments, including the impending implementation of the European Commission’s covered bond directive and the formulation of a legal framework for European Secured Notes which will begin to take form on Tuesday, June 26.

Italian banks will no longer need to have a minimum capital base of €250m to issue covered bonds. That suggests potential for an expansion of the market without relying on a multi-issuer framework where banks would pool assets to reach a benchmark size of €500m.

Erste Group and Caffil found good demand for their covered bonds that were respectively issued in the six and 20 year tenors on Tuesday. But neither deal was straightforward, according to leads, who noted that overnight market volatility had weighed on sentiment.

Société Générale returned to the covered bond market for the second time this year and found strong demand for its tightly priced long seven year. The excellent reception will help boost confidence for Erste Group and Caffil, which have both mandated for follow-on covered bonds.

LBBW’s debut green Pfandbrief attracted a larger order book from a wider set of international investors compared with a vanilla deal, suggesting the bonds have good scope to perform relative to ordinary deals.

LBBW has mandated leads for its first Pfandbrief secured on green mortgages. The transaction follows a similar deal last week from DNB Boligkreditt and comes after LBBW’s inaugural green senior deal launched in December 2017. Several other covered bonds are expected next week.

DNB Boligkreditt showed this week that borrowers have a very good incentive to consider issuing green covered bonds, especially now that the European Central Bank has signalled its intention to reduce net buying of assets under the Covered Bond Purchase Programme (CBPP3) to zero by December.

A pilot scheme to assess the risk of mortgages on energy-efficient buildings, compared with those on standard properties, was launched on Thursday by the European Mortgage Federation and European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC) under its Energy-Efficient Mortgage Initiative.

Investors believe core covered bond spreads have the scope to tighten. but the underlying mood is still fragile, investors lack confidence and are fearful that volatility will return, especially in the peripheral markets. There is also a risk that the European Central Bank proves to be more hawkish than expected at this Thursday’s policy meeting.

DNB Boligkreditt priced its inaugural green covered bond this week, paying a smaller new issue premium than core European names, but still attracting a large and granular order book in a short time frame.