Covered Bonds

The new 2011 covered bond map – brought to you by The Cover/Euroweek and Goldman Sachs is now available. The interactive map (click on the picture icon) is an invaluable and handy tool for all covered bond practitioners, providing the latest global data on issuance volumes, collateral composition, legal developments along with a host of other data sets for every jurisdiction globally.

Helaba is set to price an Eu1bn Pfandbrief on Wednesday afternoon but thereafter covered bond market activity looks set to slow down ahead of the Easter break, with many dealers suggesting things will not pick up again until the first week of May. Despite that, conditions remain favourable, suggesting issuers are likely to remain open to doing opportunistic taps.

After failing to get a six-year cédulas away earlier this the week, La Caixa successfully priced a five year deal on Tuesday. The eventual transaction, which saw two leads replaced, illustrates that, despite an improvement in fortunes for Spain generally, investor demand is clearly focused on the short to medium part of the curve for peripheral names; anything longer becomes much more price sensitive.

Coventry Building Society has successfully priced its inaugural covered bond eight basis points inside where Yorkshire Building Society was able to issue only a few days earlier.

Coventry Building Society brought an inaugural sterling deal to market on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of Yorkshire Building Society and Abbey National Treasury Services, which last week launched inaugural and repeat sterling transactions respectively.

Guidance on Lloyd Banking Group’s new Permanent deal is aimed inside where Royal Bank of Scotland placed Arran last week – and introduces a 10bp basis between currencies, in contrast to both Arran and Northern Rock’s Gosforth.

La Caixa returned to market on Tuesday, after postponing a six year cédulas trade on April 5, amid claims the deal struggled to gain traction on the basis of an over-ambitious spread whisper.

RBS today announced the appointment of Tim Skeet as a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group within Debt Capital Markets for the Nordic Region.

The continuing bid for Spanish covered bonds remained a dominant theme in the secondary market which, along with the enduring strength of demand for dollar denominated covered bonds – hints at forthcoming issuance trends.

On the back of conducive bank finance regulation, covered bond issuance is soaring, writes Bill Thornhill. Meanwhile several countries, most notably the US, are moving towards establishing fresh covered bond markets

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis has tested the covered bond product like never before. Katie Llanos-Small examines how covered bonds from the periphery have performed during the crisis, and asks what might happen if a eurozone sovereign were to default.