Covered Bonds

Bank of Ireland enjoyed strong demand for its first covered bond issue for over two years on Wednesday, pricing the deal at its tightest spread over the French covered bond market since the sovereign credit crisis.

Rising uncertainty around the global macroeconomic outlook has been feeding into the financial institutions bond market in recent weeks, pushing new issue premiums higher and forcing investors to become more selective about the bonds they invest in.

Bank of Ireland is planning to bring the first covered bond from Ireland in over two years, while Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation is lining up a debut trade in sterling.

National Bank of Canada and Commerzbank both came to the market with seven year covered bonds on Tuesday.

Commerzbank has mandated joint leads for a seven year mortgage backed Pfandbrief.

Toronto Dominion Bank this week issued a €1.25bn short five year euro covered bond with a modest concession that matched the record tightest Canadian euro covered bond spread, albeit with a rather low subscription ratio.

The European Commission's College of Commissioners is expected to vote on the long-expected pan-European covered bond directive soon and the final paper is due around mid-March. Though it is likely that reforms will be needed, these are not expected to present a major challenge said bankers closely involved with the process.

KBC became the first Belgium bank to issue a covered bond this year, attracting moderate demand despite a seemingly generous new issue premium.

The German Laender owners of HSH Nordbank sold the bank this week in a move that bodes well for the performance of its Pfandbriefe and may improve its market access, said analysts at Commerzbank.

Yapi Kredi has privately placed Turkish mortgage backed covered bonds to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to promote energy saving improvements in the financial sector.

De Volksbank enjoyed a strong reception for its 10 year benchmark covered bond and, in contrast to unsecured French and UK deals being sold simultaneously, the smooth execution showed the asset class is a “rainy day” product.

Crédit Agricole has hired a banker from SEB to join its FIG syndicate team in London.