Europe

Eurohypo today (Friday) added Eu250m to a June 2015 mortgage Pfandbrief in the only euro benchmark supply this week.

Spain’s Bancaja and Banco de Valencia have taken remedial action to support multi-cédulas in which they participate, after the banks' ratings were cut by Fitch at the beginning of June.

Fitch downgraded mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Greece’s Marfin Egnatia Bank from A+ to A- yesterday (Wednesday).

Fitch placed Portuguese bank Caixa Económica Montepio Geral on Rating Watch Negative yesterday (Wednesday), because the bank’s owner, Montepio Geral Associação Mutualista (MGAM), announced its intention to launch a takeover bid for Finibanco-Holding SGPS. Montepio Geral’s covered bonds were unaffected by the rating action.

Fitch cut mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Spain’s Caja Navarra from AAA to AA+ today (Wednesday), because of a downgrade of the bank’s rating from A to A- on 30 July.

Fitch downgraded mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by Spain’s Caixanova from AA+ to AA and placed them on Rating Watch Negative yesterday (Tuesday), because of a downgrade on Monday of Caixanova from A- to BBB+.

Moody’s downgraded unguaranteed public sector-backed covered bonds issued by Austria’s Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank from Aa1 to Aa2 yesterday (Tuesday) after cutting the issuer rating earlier in the day. The rating agency also cut Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank’s issuer rating.

Caja Madrid has played down buybacks of around Eu1.5bn of its cédulas hipotecarias that were referred to in a regulatory notice filed yesterday (Tuesday) with Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain’s stock market regulator.

Fitch downgraded Caixanova from A- to BBB+ and placed it on Rating Watch Negative, yesterday (Monday), because of advanced merger talks with Gaixa Galicia.

Moody’s yesterday (Monday) assigned a definitive rating of Aa3 to commercial mortgage-backed covered bonds issued by SpareBank 1 Næringskreditt.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Monday) withdrew its ratings of Yorkshire Building Society’s covered bond programme after affirming them at AA+ under its revised rating methodology to take into account potentially volatile asset-liability mismatch risk.

Market conditions are conducive to new covered bond issuance – even from peripheral jurisdictions – but with the holiday season in full swing issuers may not be in a position to take advantage of any opportunities, according to syndicate bankers.