Covered Bonds

Though there is still scope for the financial institutions bond market to start creeping back to life this week, participants think they will have to wait until September before new issuance volumes really start to perk up.

Rabobank’s global head of long term funding, Sjaak-Jan Baars speaks to GlobalCapital about the benefits of covered bond funding, the bank’s expected frequency in the market, the outlook for spreads and prospects for green bonds.

Covered bond ratings newcomer, Capital Intelligence Ratings (CI), has set out its covered bond rating methodology. Its approach uses the same main credit risk elements as the other agencies, but differs markedly in the way that it brings these elements together, and how it sees cover pool quality.

Switzerland’s Valiant Bank is reportedly close to issuing its debut covered bond, with a Swiss franc-denominated issue expected first, possibly followed by a euro benchmark. But the restrictive Swiss covered bond law means the deal will be contractually structured.

Commerzbank attracted as much demand and paid an identical new issue premium for its €750m 10 year covered bond issued on Thursday as Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) did for its €750m nine year launched a day before. The two transactions show that the summer lull is over and the covered bond market is back in business.

Münchener Hypothekenbank issued a tightly priced nine year Pfandbrief on Wednesday, just as Commerzbank mandated leads for a 10 year. The deals are likely to be followed by others from core Europe and especially from borrowers looking to fund at the long end, where execution risks may rise in the run up to the European Central Bank’s meeting on September 7.

Muenchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) managed to pull its Munich-based lead managers away from their beer gardens and swimming pools on Tuesday to announce a Pfandbrief mandate, though somewhat late in the day.

Covered bond spreads were marginally cheaper to Bunds across the board on Friday after a flight to safety caused German government bonds to rally. The move should bode well for the many issuers that will need to refinance maturing Pfandbriefe in the next few weeks.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) and another Greek issuer have confirmed they are looking at issuing the first Greek covered bonds since the sovereign debt crisis, reports Bill Thornhill.

GlobalCapital speaks to Wojtek Niebrzydowski, vice president, treasury, at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce about the implications for Canadian covered bonds under the country’s newly proposed resolution regime and ask what SEC Reg AB rule revisions mean for SEC-registered covered bond programmes.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) expects to see a rise in covered bond supply and most market participants anticipate a spread widening, but bankers do not expect issuers to produce a wave of covered bond pre-funding.

Canadian SEC-registered covered bond borrowers are expected to switch back to issuing under 144A/Reg S documentation after amendments to an existing regulation made SEC registration more onerous.