Covered Bonds

PKO Bank Hipoteczny has mandated leads to go on a roadshow with the first euro benchmark covered bond from Poland.

Pfandbriefbank Schweizerischer Hypothekarinstitute placed on Tuesday a dual tranche deal in Swiss francs. The shorter tranche was fashioned into a 12 year clip to entice investors looking for positive yield.

Panama’s Global Bank has announced a tender offer for its structured covered bond.

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) in Luxembourg has approved the covered bond prospectus of PKO Bank Hipoteczny and the issuer has mandated leads for a roadshow.

SNS Bank will change its name to de Volksbank from January next year, leading to speculation that it could return to the covered bond market, though possibly not with the same programme.

UBS is seeking the agreement of investors to change the maturity structure of two hard bullet covered bonds to soft bullets with a 12 month extension.

Vakifbank’s €500m five year covered bond has rallied after Moody’s cut its rating and those of five other Turkish covered bond issuers. The move implies that the rating downgrade has not delivered a fatal blow to prospective Turkish supply.

Stadshypotek attracted a robust following for its first covered bond backed by Finnish assets, and even though the final spread was much tighter than leads initially indicated, few investors fell out.

An average of about three covered bonds a week are expected between the start of the fourth quarter and the end of November, but with German holidays, blackout periods and elections, the two month funding window is thick with the risk of disruption.

Swedish bank Stadshypotek has mandated leads for its first covered bond backed by Finnish assets. As the bonds are regulated under Swedish law, they should offer a small spread over Finnish legal framework deals which are eligible for the ECB's covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3).

The European Commission could ignore the advice of the European Supervisory Authorities and plough on with its plan to exempt covered bond swaps from collateral posting where the claim is subordinate to investors, bankers say.

The various constituencies of the covered bond market voted quite differently this year and in some cases the final winning margins were close. See how the market voted for this year’s awards.