Covered Bonds

Spread widening in periphery covered bonds are a correction rather than a trend reversal, said Commerzbank’s research team this week.

The covered bond market is in danger of losing a swathe of real money investors who have been put off by low returns and declining issuance. But a rich new stream of demand from bank investors looking to fill their liquidity buffers could fill the vacuum in time. However, these buyers should be more interested in looking at the nascent floating rate format and not the fixed rate market that until now has prevailed.

National Australia Bank surprised the covered bond market on Wednesday mandating Barclays, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland and itself for a benchmark euro seven year transaction, the fifth in that tenor this month. The announcement came against a volatile credit backdrop as peripheral sovereign bonds widened along with some unsecured bonds.

Kutxabank opened books for a €1bn seven year Cédulas Hipotecarias on Monday, Spain’s fourth covered bond of this year. The issuer priced the deal through its curve even as Spanish government bonds underperformed.

After a long string of covered bond syndication success stories this year, demand showed signs of wavering on Tuesday when Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen (Helaba) issued a tightly priced two tranche Pfandbrief.

Sovereign bond market volatility continued to buffet markets on Thursday and, after the slew of FIG issuance in the last week, there was a degree of supply indigestion. But covered bond bankers did not think there was much to be read into the lacklustre execution of this week’s German and Australian deals. The two issues were solid trades, but for idiosyncratic reasons lacked the sparkle of earlier deals.

The prospective amendment to the German Pfandbrief Act to give the German regulator authority over minimum overcollateralization (OC) may prove a credit positive, said Fitch on Tuesday. But the proposals are too thin on detail for any concrete rating action on programmes to be taken.

The covered bond market is in danger of losing a swathe of real money investors who have been put off by low returns and declining issuance. But a rich new stream of demand from bank investors looking to fill their liquidity buffers could fill the vacuum in time. However, these buyers should be more interested in looking at the nascent floating rate format and not the fixed rate market that until now has prevailed.

National Australia Bank opened books on Wednesday for its first euro benchmark of the year, deciding to follow the well-worn route of others with a seven year tenor, the eighteenth such maturity this year and the fifth this month. Though NAB took advantage of being alone in the market, underlying credit sentiment remains jittery.

Standard and Poor’s positive rating action on Depfa plc on Monday, and an expected rating upgrade from Moody’s that has yet to materialise, have had barely any impact on the issuer’s Irish covered bond spreads. The outlook should become clearer when further details of its ownership structure have emerged, bankers told The Cover on Tuesday.

After a long string of syndication success stories this year, the covered bond market finally saw some investor pushback on Tuesday when Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen (Helaba) issued a tightly priced two tranche Pfandbrief. The outcome gives ammunition to those that are concerned valuations have become overstretched. However the funding was very cheap, attracted exceptionally strong international demand and was placed with high quality accounts.

Declining Spanish covered bond issuance has resulted in higher levels of overcollateralization, said Moody’s on Tuesday. This is credit positive because bondholders are better protected.