Covered Bonds

Nationwide Building Society priced its first benchmark covered bond in three years yesterday (Tuesday), a Eu1.25bn five year transaction that the issuer said lays a strong foundation for its future activity in the market.

Banco Popolare is lining up to launch what would be the fourth new Italian covered bond in 10 days, while the dollar market could be reopened today (Wednesday).

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs will hold a first hearing on covered bonds next Wednesday (15 September).

Caja Madrid launched a March 2013 cédulas issue into a crowded market this (Tuesday) morning, a week before its merger with six other Spanish banks is due to be approved, while Nationwide Building Society met with healthy demand for a five year issue launched this morning that will be sized at Eu1.25bn.

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

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

The Bank of Spain is introducing a new regulation requiring that Spanish issuers disclose detailed information on assets backing cédulas. Moody’s today (Monday) said that this should increase investors’ confidence in assessing credit risk and lower borrowers’ funding costs, even if it said that there is room for improvement, and other market participants gave qualified approval of the initiative.

Standard & Poor’s placed 53 Spanish multi-cédulas transactions on CreditWatch Negative on Friday and will review the potential impact of pressure on the creditworthiness of Spanish banks, deteriorating collateral values, and decreasing overcollateralisation available to the underlying cédulas.

Italy’s UBI Banca is today (Monday) following through with a seven year benchmark covered bond that it postponed in early summer, while the UK’s Nationwide Building Society is preparing to return to the market for the first time in three years and Deutsche Kreditbank has priced a Eu500m five year issue.

La Caixa sold a Eu1bn three year cédulas hipotecarias yesterday (Thursday), with its standing helping it achieve the benchmark size in spite of pricing some market participants had considered ambitious. However, although the bank made it four cédulas in just over a week, market participants were ambivalent about the levels of subscription and the performance of the week’s supply, not only from Spain.

Italy’s Banca Carige was happy to follow UniCredit into the obbligazioni bancarie garantite market yesterday (Wednesday), selling a Eu500m three year issue. UniCredit, meanwhile, was pleased with its results after having waited to issue since June, the issuer told The Cover.