Covered Bonds

BBVA announced that it will amortise two floating rate note retained Cédulas Hipotecarias on Wednesday. The move will increase overcollateralisation (OC) in its cover pool and could potentially result in a rating upgrade to the AA area with Standard & Poor’s, said Crédit Agricole analysts.

Mauricio Noé has left Deutsche Bank, where he was managing director of global markets.

Westpac New Zealand tapped the covered bond market for the first time since 2011 on Tuesday. The €750m five year was the most oversubscribed antipodean deal of 2014 and the most granular from the region. Around half the investors were new to the name.

Nationwide has mandated leads for the third UK covered bond in euros this year. Though a firm decision on structure and tenor has not been taken, the issuer is testing appetite for a dual tranche offering that could involve the longest dated issuance seen in euros for years, to be launched Wednesday.

Berlin Hyp opened books on Monday for a deal which gave a positive litmus test on the condition of the core Pfandbrief market. The issuer may have been able to price a €500m deal at flat to Euribor but opted for a more liquid size at 1bp over mid-swaps in a move that was applauded but which shows resistance to sub-Euribor pricing has yet to be broken.

BPCE, Muenchener Hypothekenbank and Belfius Bank all launched 10 year covered bonds on Monday, underscoring the impression that investors are confident European yields could keep heading lower. Where once long end demand was dominated by real money, banks are now more dominant, a change that has been driven by the improved status of covered bonds in the liquidity coverage ratio.

Covered bonds maintained primary market momentum this week, but issuers adopted very different pricing strategies and delivered contrasting outcomes. But in all cases issuers paid record low coupons, despite growing uncertainty over the outlook for long term rates and duration risk.

Berlin Hyp is set to open books for a quick-fire five year on Monday and ahead of the Germany-Portugal World Cup match later that day. MuHyp and BPCE have also mandated leads.

Following the June 5 ECB announcement Bonos have rallied strongly, while Cédulas have reacted to a lesser extent, leaving clear performance potential, a Barclays research note published on Thursday argues. But what is nice in theory is more difficult in practice, traders said — large blocks of Cédulas are difficult to source without pushing up prices.

The EBA have decided that they really don’t think it is a good idea that aircraft pfandbrief get a preferential risk weight along with other types of covered bond. Economically that is fairly trivial, there are only €1bn of these bonds outstanding and, since it is doubtful that many are held in banking books, it is questionable if they would get any benefit from a better risk weighting.

The Austrian government's decision on winding up Hypo Alpe Adria is a sign of waning state support said Fitch on Friday. The announcement comes as Standard & Poor’s put the ratings of seven Austrian banks on credit watch negative, leading Commerzbank research to suggest selective Austrian covered bonds could soften.

Mediobanca was the sole covered bond issuer to put its head above the transaction parapet on Tuesday morning — the first deal following Mario Draghi’s speech on June 5. Offering a €750m five-year single-A trade to a supply-hungry market, the deal was priced at least 3bp through fair value, according to a lead banker on the deal — a clear signal that the periphery tightening story is not over yet.