Euro

The Spanish region of Andalucia’s controversial plans to expropriate properties and stop evictions should not affect Cédulas holders, RBS said on Tuesday. Last week the regional government of Andalucia proposed a decree law to temporarily expropriate properties from financial entities if they are about to evict the occupants.

Covered bonds from the periphery widened in the run up to Spain’s 10 year auction, bankers told The Cover on Tuesday, but there was not much selling. Spanish government bond yields widened around 5bp-6bp on Tuesday morning and yields were up nearly 40bp from the start of the month.

Banco Popular Español got the primary covered bond market off to a strong start on Monday after it took advantage of the prevailing demand for higher yielding bonds with a tightly priced tap of its March 2017 bond.

Caja Rural de Navarra has picked joint leads for a roadshow and possible deal. Its announcement late on Wednesday came after Moody’s said that the prospective A3 rated €500m Cédulas was overcollateralised by 623% which will allay negative equity concerns.

Miguel Angel Gadea, head of funding at Cajas Rurales Unidas (Cajamar), spoke to The Cover on Wednesday, following its debut deal as a merged entity. Cajamar, which plans to be a regular issuer, has grown deposits, expects to raise its core capital ratio this year and aims to stabilise its ratio of non-performing loans with a proactive approach to servicing.

Norway’s central bank plans to continue excluding covered bond mortgage subsidiaries from using its lending facility and says the level of asset encumbrance should be linked to the cost of deposit insurance. Analysts said that the news was disappointing for the covered bond market.

Cajas Rurales Unidas (CRU) accessed capital markets for the first time on Tuesday, bringing a €500m three year covered bond. Price discovery was tricky, given the absence of liquid comparable deals.

Despite a UK holiday syndicate bankers are not ruling out deals on Monday, and there are still borrowers eager to execute bonds in run up to summer, they said.

Turkey’s Denizbank is expected to price its SME covered bond within the month and there are hopes other issuers will follow. While the SME product is unlikely to be seen as anything other than niche, there are strong expectations that at least four borrowers will launch euro denominated mortgage backed deals in benchmark size.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group slipped in a successful euro benchmark covered bond on Thursday morning ahead of the European Central Bank’s rates decision. The borrower returned to euros for the first time in over a year and closed the tightest covered bond yet from an Australian issuer.

Bankinter’s latest €500m tap this week came with a tighter spread and drew more international accounts than the borrower has managed with any benchmark deal in recent years. As its issuance costs drop its loan portfolio is becoming profitable, and though it remains barred from the senior unsecured market, comfortable covered bond funding costs and foreign demand are steps in the right direction, a funding official told The Cover.

Moody’s has downgraded Italy’s Banca Carige and will turn its attention to the issuer’s covered bonds, which traders expect to come under selling pressure in the secondary market.