Covered issuance continues apace

January’s blistering pace of covered bond issuance showed no sign of abating into the first few days of February with the higher yielding long end of the curve seeing a robust UK insurance bid, thanks to the impact of Solvency II. UniCredit’s 12 year attained the largest order book of the year, and the largest ever for an Italian issuer. Lloyds TSB’s 18 year sterling debut was the longest deal of the year so far and followed the wake of Nationwide’s earlier success.