Finland

Sampo Housing Loan Bank is preparing to resume issuing covered bonds for the first time since being acquired by Danske Bank in 2006 as part of a takeover of its parent, Sampo Bank, an official at Dankse told The Cover.

Concrete plans for new issue projects next week appeared thin on the ground this (Friday) morning, but this could be a misleading indicator of forthcoming supply. At least three issuers are on the road next week, Spanish banks are emerging from blackout periods, and bankers said that French issuers are likely to be encouraged by a successful Compagnie de Financement Foncier Eu1bn 10 year transaction sold yesterday.

Intesa Sanpaolo has opened books on its first mortgage covered bond, backed by self-originated residential mortgage backed securities, with what a syndicate official described as an “eye-catching” level. Meanwhile, Nordea is preparing a roadshow to introduce Finnish covered bond plans.

Martti Porkka is stepping down as managing director of Aktia Real Estate Mortgage Bank in the autumn and will leave the Finnish covered bond issuer next year.

Issuers pricing transactions yesterday (Tuesday) adopted flexible approaches to timing and execution, and representatives of CIF Euromortgage and Eurohypo told The Cover that they were happy with the end results in light of market conditions.

A Eu1bn five year issue from OP Mortgage Bank was the most popular covered bond on offer yesterday (Monday), attracting Eu2bn of orders in less than half an hour.

The covered bond market had one of its busiest ever sessions this (Monday) morning, with four institutions making the most of an issuance window despite overall sentiment remaining fragile.

The primary covered bond market is expected to be very busy next week, with mandates for Münchener Hypothekenbank and OP Mortgage Bank announced this (Friday) morning said to be only the first of many due to emerge in the coming days. Meanwhile, France’s CM-CIC snuck out a deal today between a German public holiday yesterday and US non-farm payrolls today.

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.)

The introduction of a new Finnish covered bond law, expected for July, should not affect the issuance strategies of the country’s two issuers, but could result in at least one new institution entering the market.

Standard & Poor’s has affirmed its ratings of covered bonds issued by Deutsche Genossenschafts-Hypothekenbank and Finland's OP Mortgage Bank at AAA under its revised methodology.