Covered Bonds

Korea Housing Finance Corporation hopes that its covered bonds will become a conduit through which Korean commercial banks can raise funding, according to its chief financial officer, but is also backing the introduction of standards for Korea’s lenders to issue on a standalone basis.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria this (Monday) morning launched the first sizeable new cédulas issue in three months on the back of improved market sentiment for Spanish debt.

Moody’s downgraded from A1 to A3 mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Greece’s Marfin Egnatia Bank last Friday because of a cut in the senior unsecured rating of its parent, Cyprus’s Marfin Popular Bank.

Bank of Nova Scotia priced a $2.5bn (Eu1.96bn) three year covered bond yesterday (Thursday) that is the second largest ever dollar covered bond and the largest fixed rate single tranche dollar issue from a Canadian bank in any format, according to data from Dealogic. In euros activity has been confined to taps.

The minute the European Central Bank bought its last covered bond, Jean-Luc Covered snapped up the movie rights to The Cover’s CBPP Excel spreadsheet. Who could resist a plot with all the necessary ingredients for a summer blockbuster: a crisis of Eu60bn proportions, a glamorous yet mysterious central banker, and a dishevelled anti-hero? Today, we exclusively premiere the trailer in glorious YouTube-orama.

Fitch yesterday (Thursday) rated Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt A- on stable outlook, citing the strong integration and support it could receive from its owner Sparebanken Vest in the event of need.

The composition of the cover pool backing mortgage Pfandbriefe issued by SEB AG is set to change significantly as a result of a sale of the bank’s German retail business to Banco Santander, but the issuer is committed to defending the covered bonds’ Aa1 Moody’s rating.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Thursday) withdrew its ratings of Achmea Hypotheekbank’s covered bond programme after downgrading it from AAA to AA+, on stable outlook, under its revised rating methodology.

Fitch yesterday (Wednesday) cut mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Banco Popular Español from AAA to AA+ following a downgrade of the issuer.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Wednesday) downgraded public sector-backed covered bonds issued by Portugal’s Banco BPI by five notches, from AAA to A, under its revised rating methodology. Meanwhile, Moody’s has cut the issuer ratings of eight Portuguese banks, including the country’s six covered bond issuers.