Pass-through offers beleaguered banks salvation

Conditional pass-through bonds gained buyside support on Wednesday when a leading covered bond investor said they could help small, rating-constrained banks from Europe’s periphery. Henrik Stille of Nordea Investment Management was speaking at a panel at the ECBC plenary session in Barcelona. Vulnerable issuers could use the conditional pass-through structure to shore up covered bond programme ratings as the rating agencies are not going to move quickly on positive developments for covered bonds in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive.