Covered Bonds

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.

Korea Housing Finance Corp and Cariparma Crédit Agricole have hired lead managers to arrange investor meetings, with a view to issuing covered bonds in dollars and euros, respectively.

National Bank of Canada (NBC), rarely seen in the covered bond market, issued a seven year deal on Thursday and although it offered virtually no concession, it was highly subscribed.

The Bank of Queensland’s (BoQ) upcoming conditional pass through (CPT) covered bond, the first CPT from an Australian issuer, will mark a major step in the use of the structure, with cross-currency swaps used for the first time.

RLB Oberösterreich issued its first covered bond benchmark this week attracting the widest ever audience for any Austrian covered bond issuer, burying lingering concerns over long term fallout from Heta.