Europe

Berlin-Hannoversche Hypothekenbank’s Jan Bettink is expected to take over as president of the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) in June when Henning Rasche is due to step down.

Norway’s KLP group is finalising a public sector covered bond programme for its KLP Kommunekreditt public sector lending business.

HSH Nordbank’s ship Pfandbriefe were downgraded by Moody’s from A1 to A2 yesterday (Wednesday) because the rating agency cut the issuer’s rating by one notch the day before.

Moody’s has upgraded WestLB Covered Bond Bank from A2 to Aa1 because of a change of its ownership from WestLB to Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), a wind-down entity set up for WestLB. The development is “very favourable” for bondholders, said the rating agency.

Moody’s put seven Portuguese covered bond programmes on review for downgrade yesterday (Wednesday) after taking the same action on the sovereign and then 10 rated Portuguese banks.

Austria’s Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft (Bawag) and Norway’s Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt today (Wednesday) announced that they will go on covered bond roadshows in the week of 17 May, although because of market volatility the new issue market remains closed.

WestLB Covered Bond Bank has been taken over by Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), a wind-down entity into which non-core and riskier assets of WestLB have been transferred. A blanket guarantee of the Irish Asset Covered Securities issuer was also taken on by EAA.

Moody’s has downgraded the senior unsecured debt ratings of HSH Nordbank and WestLB by one notch because it has revised its assumptions about how likely it is that their public sector owners will support the banks.

Moody’s downgraded five multi-cédulas issues yesterday (Monday) because of a significant weakening of the credit strength of some of the participating issuers and “quite pronounced” deterioration of the quality of the collateral.

Louis Hagen has been appointed spokesman of the board of management of Münchener Hypothekenbank by its supervisory board.

Moody’s cut the ratings of the covered bond programmes of Alpha Bank and EFG Eurobank Ergasias on Friday after downgrading the issuers and seven other Greek banks because of their weakening stand-alone financial strength and worries about the country’s challenged economic prospects.

New Finnish covered bond legislation due in July could make indirect issuance an option for smaller institutions, according to market participants, and will do away with legal distinctions between mortgage-backed and public sector-backed issuance. (This follows up on an article from Monday.)