Covered Bonds

As a result of deal announcements and the new issue premium, secondary market turnover has been hit, with spreads moving on little volume. Curves have conspicuously steepened in France but DexMA remains out of line.

ABN Amro and Credit Suisse maintained primary market momentum on Wednesday, adding another €2.25bn of supply. ABN Amro paid above initial price thoughts to ensure smooth execution of its 10 year, while Credit Suisse was able to price its five year inside UBS’s offering last week — making it the tightest five year euro print of the year.

Four covered bond issuers collectively raised over €5bn of new funding on Tuesday across two currencies and three tenors. Total issuance this week exceeds €8bn equivalent and on Wednesday a further two are lining up with euro benchmarks. This suggests borrowers will have raised at least €25bn equivalent this year by the close of play on Wednesday.

RBS has issued the second sterling covered bond this year and its debut deal in the currency. It chose to differentiate itself from Barclays’ 10 year deal with a longer 12 year. In so doing, it attracted a strong order book enabling it to price in line with guidance and the deal has since performed well, in contrast to Barclays.

The Basel Committee this week reaffirmed its commitment to push ahead with the introduction of the liquidity coverage ratio by 2015. By that date banks will have to have set aside the requisite amount of capital in assets that the committee deems to be liquid.

Having aimed for a maximum €2bn deal, Nordea Bank Finland ended up printing an even larger trade after its July 2017 drew €3bn of demand. The €2.25bn deal, increased off the back of ECB Covered Bond Purchase Programme participation, is the largest Nordic covered bond ever.

The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) has begun publishing indicative jumbo Pfandbriefe spreads following calls for greater price transparency from smaller institutional investors. At the same time the vdp has widened the definition of jumbo Pfandbriefe.

The covered bond primary market continues to enjoy good momentum, with as many as four issuers collectively raising the equivalent of around €5bn in the four to 12 year area across two currencies.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Aareal bank and Compagnie de Financement Foncier successfully raised a collective €2.5bn on Monday, opening the way for Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Nordea and Credit Mutuel-CIC - which are expected to launch and price deals on Tuesday.

Crédit Mutuel-CIC Home Loan has launched the longest dated euro trade of 2012, a 12 year aimed at German and French buy and hold investors.