Germany

HSH Nordbank has taken the unusual step of using a synthetic securitisation that frees up no regulatory capital at all. Instead, the credit protection provided by KfW on a portfolio of SME loans means they can now be used as collateral in HSH’s public sector Pfandbriefe — the bank’s most important source of term funding.

Bankinter on Thursday swiftly followed peripheral peer UniCredit’s success from the day before. The Spanish borrower launched a blow-out three year benchmark trade 20bp inside initial price thoughts, as traders struggled to keep up with a big spread rally in peripheral paper.

Investor sentiment towards Spain and Italy has improved since August, according to a Crédit Agricole survey. However, most buyers’ credit lines are unchanged, which means many still cannot take advantage of remarkable relative value.

Bayerische Landesbank sold its second ever dollar covered bond benchmark on Tuesday, pricing a $500m two year trade that carried one of the lowest ever coupons in the dollar covered bond market.

Bayerische Landesbank opened books on its first benchmark dollar covered bond since 2005 on Monday. It could price the $500m two year trade later on Monday but may leave books open overnight to attract Asian accounts.

Core covered bonds are performing poorly, with low coupons putting investors off, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. Higher yielding peripheral paper could benefit as a result, but the prospect for fresh benchmark trades from southern Europe remains uncertain.

Investors are cash-rich and covered bond spreads look set to remain fairly stable – ideal conditions for covered bond issuance. However, deal flow is set to remain quiet as most issuers are well funded, and those that could do deals are about to enter blackout period.

French and German covered bonds have outperformed sovereign and agency debt from the same countries, and investors would now benefit from switching out of covered bonds, Barclays analysts have advised. But traders countered that a dearth of new issuance is preventing such profit taking, and will help keep core covered bond spreads tight in the short term.

Norddeutsche Landesbank has sold a stand-out debut dollar covered bond, ending Germany’s six year absence from the 144A covered market. The three year deal on Wednesday carried the lowest ever coupon for a covered bond in that currency and is the only outstanding public sector backed trade in the dollar covered market.

Norddeutsche Landesbank could open books on a debut dollar covered bond as early as Tuesday morning, said syndicate leads on Monday. But the outlook for a first sterling trade from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank is more uncertain.

Deutsche Hypothekenbank found demand lacklustre for its seven year mortgage Pfandbrief on Tuesday, with even domestic buyers proving reluctant to participate.

Markit is expected to unveil a new tradable liquid covered bond index in October or November. Though it may not necessarily be actively traded, it should provide a more useful measure than the existing index, as it will help investors to gauge more closely their performance in relation to the most relevant parts of the covered bond market.