Euro

Investors should consider switching out of the senior unsecured debt issued by Abbey National and Lloyds Banking Group and buying their covered bonds, said Barclays on Friday. The scarcity of supply in both asset classes has driven a technical tightening which, the analysts say, is not fundamentally justified.

Vakifbank is yet to mandate banks for its next Eurobond deal, but is “working closely” with Unicredit and Natixis to bring what could be Turkey’s first ever mortgage-backed covered bond transaction, said a funding official at the borrower. Those banks have not been officially mandated for the covered bond.

Bunds fell further on Thursday following stronger than expected growth data from France and Germany. But in contrast to the last time yields were at current levels, credit spreads were much wider. Though funding conditions have never looked better, issuers are in no hurry to bring deals, bankers told The Cover.

Standard & Poor's has assigned a preliminary triple-A rating to the inaugural €10bn medium term covered bond programme of La Banque Postale Home Loan Obligations de Financement de l'Habitat. Having roadshowed in July, it is poised to take advantage of strong market conditions by pricing its first transaction in the near future.

The Danish auction season kicks off this week with Nykredit’s scheduled to start on Thursday and the other Danish banks expected to follow. The auctions will be notable for offering a new type of longer dated product that should help to address rating agency concerns over asset liability mismatches and help fulfil Basel III’s Net Stable Funding Ratio.

Münchener Hypothekenbank priced a €250m tap of its July 2028 on Wednesday with demand driven by reverse enquiry and short positions among dealers. Despite a lacklustre launch, the rarity of the name and this tenor suggested it would always perform well and Wednesday’s tap proved just that.

Berlin-Hannoversche Hypothekenbank sold a €250m long three year Pfandbrief in floating rate format on Monday, in a deal that was largely distributed among the savings bank networks of lead managers Norddeutsche Landesbank and WGZ Bank.

The European covered bond market was well supported on Monday by a combination of technical and fundamental factors. Negative net issuance is set to increase, this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is expected to be supportive and the outcome of this September’s German elections is looking more certain.

Hungarian legislators have stepped back from making a retroactive change to foreign currency mortgage loan contracts. The government will now consult with the country’s banking association before taking any action, it said on Wednesday. Bankers had feared that such a move would have severely destabilised markets.

The secondary covered bond market remains well supported, with real money profit taking being easily absorbed, dealers told The Cover on Wednesday. Peripheral national champions are in hot demand and even weaker credits like Cajas Rurales Unidas have stabilised, they added.

Bank Austria opened books for its inaugural €500m five year mortgage backed deal on Tuesday, attracting a book subscribed by more than three times from a wide range of investors. The bank was ready to do the deal weeks ago, but held back on expectations that a downgrade of Italy would hit its ratings.

Fitch will not change its covered bond rating methodology while Europe’s new bank directive remains in draft form, it said on Tuesday. The draft directive has made it explicitly clear that in the event of a bank’s resolution, its covered bonds would be protected from being bailed in. However, this has not yet been reflected in covered bond ratings.