Covered Bonds

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.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt took advantage of a slight improvement in sentiment on Monday to issue a €1bn five year covered bond while Møre Boligkreditt issued a sub-benchmark deal. The two banks followed DG Hyp which issued a nine year benchmark.

DG Hyp issued a €500m nine year Pfandbrief on Friday with demand of €1bn and a concession of about 5bp. The deal follows an active week in covered bonds and comes ahead of what is likely to be another busy week before the European Central Bank meeting — partly reflecting continued execution uncertainty in the senior unsecured market.

NN Bank paid a generous premium this week to issue the first Dutch conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond of 2018. The deal emerged at the same time as Belfius Bank returned to the covered bond market with a 10 year.