Europe

Intesa Sanpaolo’s €1.25bn 10 year OBG has underscored enormous appetite for risk and has sparked debate over whether the funding door might be open for other smaller issuers from Europe’s periphery and particularly from Italy. However, it seems borrowers that could do deals would rather wait and see.

Jean-Philipe Berthaut, BPCE’s deputy chief executive and head of group funding, told The Cover it was a good idea for the French issuer to start 2013 funding with its €1bn seven year covered bond on Wednesday.

Intesa Sanpaolo has succumbed to perennial investor demand for long dated peripheral issuance from a national champion and issued a €1.25bn 10 year bond. Though the funding margin is slightly negative, it is much better than even three months ago. More importantly, the deal is remarkable for its long duration.

Sanjay Sofat, regional treasurer for Lloyds TSB in New York, is returning to London to head the bank’s senior funding team.

Standard & Poor’s has dealt a blow to the Dutch covered bond market by downgrading several of its banks’ issuer ratings, chiefly because of the country’s prolonged property market correction. But the move should only have a limited effect on the Dutch covered bond market, say analysts.

Foreigners buying a property worth more than 160,000 euros in Spain may get the right to reside in the EU country, a Spanish official said

Spain’s government was due to pass a decree on Thursday that would suspend evictions of homeowners in financial difficulty, as the country works on changes to its mortgage law. The effect on Cédulas performance is likely to be limited, however, given the low threshold for assistance.

Companies in the US vie to take advantage of the difference between low gas prices and high crude, the CEO of a GTL firm told Emerging Markets

DNB Boligkreditt made a surprise return to the market on Wednesday, after half a year away, issuing a smaller than usual covered bond and taking advantage of the exceptionally strong funding conditions in the long end, where supply is scarce.

Bank of Ireland has priced its first covered bond in three years, attracting a heavily oversubscribed book that was broad and granular. The deal, that many may have considered impossible only a few weeks ago, pays further testimony to the continued bid for higher yielding assets and represents a strong endorsement of covered bonds.

Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank looks set to reopen the Irish covered bond market and has appointed joint leads for the first Asset Covered Security since the crisis. With Irish government bonds trading inside Spain’s and Italy’s, the deal should get more competitive funding.

The US is likely to cede the top spot to China in the next three years while India will also surpass the US over the long term, an OECD report said