Covered Bonds

UBS has appointed Armin Peter head of EMEA covered bonds, debt capital markets, and declared an ambition to be among the top five banks in the business within two years.

Aareal Bank was first into the covered bond market this (Monday) morning, opening books on a Eu500m five year mortgage Pfandbrief. Meanwhile, Groupe Caisse d’Epargne is building a shadow order book for its first benchmark since September 2008 and a handful of other issuers have announced mandates.

The first US-targeted benchmark covered bond for two-and-a-half years could be launched as early as today (Monday), with non-US issuers said to be testing whether US investors are ready to return to the asset class.

Crédit Agricole yesterday (Thursday) priced a Eu2bn three year issue after building the biggest order book for a covered bond benchmark launched so far this year despite challenging market conditions.

Fitch yesterday (Thursday) placed on Rating Watch negative (RWN) the mortgage Pfandbriefe of eight German banks and maintained a negative review on another’s over what it higher risk in commercial real estate lending and limited collateral information. The Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) has called the timing of the rating action “incomprehensible”.

The Covered Bond Investor Council yesterday (Thursday) called for an end to the recent practice of building shadow order books based on price whispers, and urged a return to traditional methods.

Standard & Poor’s has affirmed GE SCF’s covered bond programme at AAA under its new covered bond rating methodology, which leaves 82 programmes on CreditWatch negative. It also assigned a AAA rating and a stable outlook to the first issue launched by HSBC Covered Bonds (France).

*This league table is for euro jumbos in 2009 excluding German, French and Spanish deals, which are featured in their own league tables.

The European Central Bank reported Eu2.134bn of covered bond purchases this week, the second highest week’s total since its programme began last July.

Standard & Poor’s will no longer rate Landesbank Baden-Württemberg’s Pfandbriefe or other debt after the German bank ended its contract with the rating agency.