Covered Bonds

Leeds Building Society is lining up to re-open the sterling covered bond market next week, while other inaugural deals are expected to lead a resumption of new benchmark issuance in euros.

*Change relative to end September. Due to technical problems, we are unable to link to this table from the homepage.

Sampo Housing Loan Bank is preparing to resume issuing covered bonds for the first time since being acquired by Danske Bank in 2006 as part of a takeover of its parent, Sampo Bank, an official at Dankse told The Cover.

A Eu350m Cajamar tap yesterday (Wednesday) brought euro benchmark issuance this week to Eu700m, the lowest level since supply restarted at the end of August, but market participants expect primary market activity to pick up next week.

Barclays Capital’s head of covered bond origination in the Americas has left to join RBC Capital Markets, The Cover understands.

Fitch will in the coming weeks reassess Discontinuity Factors assigned to Portuguese covered bond programmes after a review of its analysis of the country’s covered bond framework revealed that the latter leaves “some residual exposure” to an issuing financial institution, the rating agency said yesterday (Wednesday).

Kookmin Bank has hit a roadblock in its plan to spin off its credit card business. Around $2bn of its credit card assets are tied up as collateral backing a $1bn covered bond.

Spain’s Cajamar is gathering orders for a tap of a 3.5% October 2014 issue that is being marketed at a level around 205bp wider than where the original deal was sold in October 2009, while Crédit Agricole yesterday (Tuesday) priced a Eu350m increase of a October 2025 deal in response to domestic investor interest in longer maturities and some shorts in the market.

The US Covered Bond Council, a forum sponsored by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma), has questioned the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s understanding of proposed US covered bond legislation and existing law following comments made by the FDIC at a housing finance conference last week.

*Change relative to end September. Due to technical problems, we are unable to link to this table from the homepage.

The benchmark covered bond market opened for issuance on Tuesday, but was restricted to a Eu350m tap of a 4% October 2025 Crédit Agricole deal. But Spain’s Cajamar is also testing investor interest for an increase of a 3.5% October 2014 issue with what would be the widest spread so far in the benchmark market.

These charts and tables provide an overview of all benchmark covered bond issuance from January-October 2010, breaking down total supply by country, currency, and maturity, and comparing this month's and this year's volumes with those of previous months and years, respectively.