Covered Bonds

In brief: Coventry Building Society has launched the first covered bond off its new programme. Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas are arrangers of the issuer’s Eu7bn covered bond programme.

Depfa Deutsche Pfandbriefbank priced its second benchmark of the year at the tight end of guidance yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, taking advantage of thorough groundwork to turn around its Eu2bn as quickly as possible. Depfa’s attentions will turn to potential public ACS issuance in the second half.

Moody’s has put Washington Mutual Inc’s senior unsecured Baa3 rating and WaMu Bank’s Baa2 rating on review for downgrade, making the possibility of a downgrade of the bank’s A2 covered bonds more likely.

The Treasury is expected to follow up on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s recent covered bond policy statement with an announcement next Monday that will firm up the US framework and could grant the instrument further special treatment.

*Note: As part of our review of the first half of the year we rechecked the data used to compile this table and reclassified some issues. As a result, the totals and ranking may therefore not correspond with the last table excluding taps. The number in the second column indicates where the bank stood in our latest benchmark ranking including taps.

Portugal’s Banco BPI is set to price its debut two year covered bond after breaching the targeted Eu1bn level this (Tuesday) morning. The impact of holidays had slowed the deal’s progress and the re-offer was set at the wide end of guidance.

The 4% limit on covered bond issuance as a percentage of total liabilities is one of the most restrictive parts of the policy statement released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation last week. The Cover spoke to the Independent Community Bankers of America about their views on the cap, and whether pooled issuance was a prospect in the US.

Depfa Deutsche Pfandbriefbank rolled back the years this (Tuesday) morning, attracting more than Eu4.5bn of orders for a new two year public sector Pfandbrief. The deal should be priced this afternoon at the tight end of guidance.

In brief: Allen Rad is leaving Dresdner Kleinwort for RBS.

Fitch today (Tuesday) downgraded the long term rating of Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) from A+ to A in a series of rating actions on UK building societies. The building society’s triple-A covered bond rating has not been affected.