Covered Bonds

DG Hypothekenbank has mandated leads for a seven year mortgage covered bond to be launched early next week.

Nationwide on Tuesday became the third British financial institution to offer a three year floating rate note (FRN) in covered format this year. Looking to harness the remnants of the momentum it built in the market during its dual tranche euro deal at the end of last month, the building society’s deal was more oversubscribed than the other two similar deals done this year — from Abbey and Lloyds Bank — which were priced in January.

Three issuers launched covered bonds this week with varying results, which suggested that the converging trend between core and peripheral Europe has stalled. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) struggled to attract anything like the demand seen in its previous covered bond as Portuguese woes outweighed the programme’s rating upgrade into investment grade territory.

HSH Nordbank opened books on Thursday for a deal which took advantage of Europe’s core markets’ recent tightening versus its periphery. Leads produced an oversubscribed book as Bunds rallied and peripheral sovereigns continued to struggle.

Goldman Sachs will give investors more time to understand the unique structure of its Fixed Income Global Structured Covered Obligation (Figsco) and appreciate just how different it is from a pure market value deal, or a covered bond (This story has one comment).

Fitch said it will start to disclose the breakeven overcollateralisation (OC) components for its covered bond ratings. The three components will provide a standardised way of expressing the agency’s opinion on the key factors that determine the relationship between OC and a covered bond rating, and this should help investors to compare different programmes.

HSH Nordbank has mandated joint leads for a €500m five year mortgage Pfandbrief, which is expected to be priced on Thursday. Market conditions for core issuers look favourable with Bund yields tightening further.

Swaps associated with covered bonds that are compliant with the capital requirement regulation, do not need to be centrally cleared. This will act to strengthen the difference between what is a real covered bond and what is a mere lookalike.

Nationwide became on Tuesday the third British financial institution to offer a three year floating rate note (FRN) this year. Looking to harness the remnants of the momentum it built in the market during its dual tranche euro deal at the end of last month, the building society’s deal was more oversubscribed than the other two similar deals — from Abbey and Lloyds Bank — done in January.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) took advantage of its new position among covered bond investment grade borrowers to take a 10 year benchmark to market on Tuesday. Given its €1bn seven year tap in April attracted one of the highest oversubscriptions of any covered bond of that size this year, expectations for Tuesday’s deal were high. But on that basis the deal disappointed, despite it delivering another €1bn for the issuer.

BNP Paribas has named two senior executives to drive its fixed income business in Germany, as part of its decision six months ago to upgrade Germany to one of its domestic markets, alongside France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.

The cover pool backing Goldman Sachs’ fixed income global structured covered obligation (Figsco) programme is too weak to secure a rating uplift to the issuer of the underlying special purpose vehicle — Goldman Sachs Mitsui Marine Derivatives Products (GSMMDP), the joint venture guaranteed by Goldman Sachs and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Fitch said on Monday.