Covered Bonds

Caja Madrid has played down buybacks of around Eu1.5bn of its cédulas hipotecarias that were referred to in a regulatory notice filed yesterday (Tuesday) with Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain’s stock market regulator.

Fitch downgraded Caixanova from A- to BBB+ and placed it on Rating Watch Negative, yesterday (Monday), because of advanced merger talks with Gaixa Galicia.

Moody’s yesterday (Monday) assigned a definitive rating of Aa3 to commercial mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by SpareBank 1 Næringskreditt.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Monday) withdrew its ratings of Yorkshire Building Society’s covered bond programme after affirming them at AA+ under its revised rating methodology to take into account potentially volatile asset-liability mismatch risk.

Market conditions are conducive to new covered bond issuance – even from peripheral jurisdictions – but with the holiday season in full swing issuers may not be in a position to take advantage of any opportunities, according to syndicate bankers.

Banca delle Marche hopes to issue its first covered bond when the market reopens after the summer break, a funding official at the bank told The Cover.

Fitch affirmed Cédulas TDA 14 at AAA, on stable outlook, yesterday (Thursday), in spite of a downgrade last week of Caja Madrid and its cédulas hipotecarias, to which Cédulas TDA 14 is heavily exposed.

Fitch downgraded IM Cédulas 1 Grupo Banco Popular’s mortgage backed covered bonds from AAA to AA, on stable outlook, yesterday (Thursday) because of a downgrade of Banco Popular Español’s rating from AA- to A.

Moody’s cut public sector-backed covered bonds issued by Kommunalkredit Austria from Aaa to Aa1 today (Friday) and placed them on review for further possible downgrade while it assesses a proposal from the issuer to increase “committed” overcollateralisation levels.