Ireland

EBS Building Society yesterday (Thursday) placed its first unguaranteed bond since the Irish government guarantee scheme was introduced in September 2008, via a Eu1bn three year benchmark covered bond sold by its subsidiary, EBS Mortgage Finance. The issuer told The Cover that it is delighted to have overcome the challenges it faced in making its public debut and is looking forward to building on it for the future.

EBS Mortgage Finance is taking orders for a Eu1bn three year mortgage-backed benchmark at the 175bp over mid-swaps area today (Thursday), while OP Mortgage Bank was this morning twice oversubscribed on a Eu1.25bn five year.

EBS Mortgage Finance and OP Mortgage Bank are sounding out investors today (Wednesday) for what are said to be three and five year deals, respectively. Fortis Bank Nederland’s planned debut is also being discussed.

AIB Mortgage Bank has put in place provisions to protect Fitch’s AAA rating of a hard bullet mortgage covered security series following last week’s downgrade of the Republic of Ireland, under whose guarantee the series of bonds falls, said the rating agency yesterday (Monday).

Fitch has today (Monday) affirmed Bank of Ireland’s mortgage covered bonds at AAA after improving their Discontinuity Factor to reflect changes to the issuer’s UK programme that mean all covered bonds executed off it now feature an extendable maturity.

Fitch yesterday (Monday) downgraded EBS Mortgage Finance’s residential covered bonds from AAA to AA following Friday’s downgrade of the issuer’s rating from BBB to BBB-.

Fitch has downgraded EBS Building Society from BBB to BBB-, and removed the rating from Rating Watch Evolving. The outlook is stable.

The execution of the Bank of Ireland’s Eu1.5bn covered bond priced yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon was the culmination of a process set in motion by the announcement of the European Central Bank’s Eu60bn purchase programme in early May, the issuer told The Cover, that allowed it to reopen the market for unguaranteed Irish issuance.

Bank of Ireland as good as signalled the complete recovery of the covered bond market, in terms of access at least, by launching a Eu1.5bn five year deal that is the first Irish issue in the public markets since June 2007. And while spreads for such issuers may remain at unprecedented levels, the strong rally is nevertheless encouraging many credits to explore possible new issues.

Standard & Poor’s yesterday (Monday) downgraded Anglo Irish Bank Corp Ltd from A- to BBB+ and removed the rating from negative watch.

Moody’s yesterday downgraded Anglo Irish Bank and placed the ratings of Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland on review for possible downgrade.

Standard & Poor’s on Friday put Allied Irish Bank on CreditWatch negative, reflecting uncertainty over the bank’s profile and the Irish government’s “bad bank” plan.