Euro

A year after issuing its last euro denominated benchmark, Caisse Centrale Desjardins du Quebec (CCDJ) has mandated leads for a European roadshow.

Four issuers launched covered bonds on Tuesday following the four that launched deals on Monday, doubling supply from €3bn to €6bn so far this week. By virtue of its size, Compagnie de Financement Foncier’s (CFF) €1.25bn benchmark stood out, but the level of demand was far below its previous five year even though the concession was several times larger.

Covered bond sentiment has improved slightly from June, with investors becoming less pessimistic, according to a survey compiled by Crédit Agricole CIB research. Issuers have become less optimistic, but overall it is still a sellers’ market.

Moody’s has assigned a provisional Aaa rating to €8.6bn of class ‘A’ notes to be issued by FCT Crédit Agricole Habitat 2015, a vehicle for home loans originated by 39 regional French banks belonging to Crédit Agricole.

WL BANK AG has mandated leads for an eight year mortgage backed covered bond and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has mandated leads for its first conditional pass through, a long six year. Both transactions are likely to be priced on Tuesday.

Banca Carige raised €500m of five year covered bond funding on Monday with the rare 100bp spread providing enough juice to tempt some investors into the book, despite its junk rating from Moody’s.

Santander Totta issued the second only covered bond from Portugal this year on Monday. Despite a low cover ratio the deal was diversely distributed.

Barclays became the sixth bank to seek the consent of investors to switch a number of hard bullet covered bonds to soft bullet maturities. A successful outcome is likely, which will remove onerous collateral obligations under the pre maturity test.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has recommended that the European Commission (EC) excludes covered bonds from a uniform definition of Mortgage Lending Value (MLV).

Aktia Bank has agreed to buy the remainder of its subsidiary, Aktia Real Estate Mortgage Bank (Aktia REMB), by 2017. As a result Finland’s savings banks will refinance their own mortgages by establishing a new covered bond issuing institution, expected to be called SP Mortgage Bank, which will start issuing from next year.

Belfius Bank is preparing to launch the first Belgian RMBS deal since 2006. The launch of the deal is set to coincide with the National Bank of Belgium taking up its role as a Eurosystem asset manager executing purchases from October 27, a move which should guarantee a large domestic bid.

Bank of Scotland's £900m equivalent triple currency denominated deal marked a successful return to the UK RMBS market for the issuer after a four year absence. The deal sends a positive message to the market that there is demand for UK RMBS assets, at the right price.