Italy

Banca delle Marche hopes to issue its first covered bond when the market reopens after the summer break, a funding official at the bank told The Cover.

Banca delle Marche has set up a Eu5bn covered bond programme, according to a rating release from Moody’s.

Eurohypo yesterday (Wednesday) priced a Eu500m four year mortgage-backed Pfandbrief, the fourth sub-Eu1bn deal of six sizeable issues launched this week. Meanwhile, HSH Nordbank plans to access the benchmark covered bond market.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest banking group, yesterday (Tuesday) publicly inaugurated its Eu10bn Italian covered bond programme with a five year issue that achieved a targeted size of Eu1bn.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is taking the place of UBI Banca in reopening the Italian covered bond market, launching its inaugural deal today (Tuesday), but the reopening of the obbligazioni bancarie garantite segment has been badly managed, according to bankers. Meanwhile, four other issues are accessing the market today.

Four covered bond issuers were this (Monday) morning said to be lining up to tap the covered bond market, with the level being floated for a mooted Italian transaction surprising market participants.

Royal Bank of Scotland launched its first benchmark covered bond this (Wednesday) morning, a Eu1.25bn three year issue that market participants said had succeeded despite coming in a tough market and as the number of Eu500m or greater deals this week hit 10, totalling Eu9.2bn. Meanwhile, Aareal Bank and WL Bank added to the growing supply of sub-Eu1bn issues.

Banca Popolare di Milano’s covered bonds were affirmed by Fitch on Friday after the issuer told the rating agency that it would take remedial action following a downgrade of its senior rating the previous day.

Fitch downgraded Banca Popolare di Milano from A to A-, on stable outlook, yesterday (Thursday), reflecting a deterioration in the Italian bank’s underlying asset quality over the past 18 months.

Banca Carige’s outlook has been changed from negative to stable by Fitch, which said yesterday (Thursday) that the Italian bank should remain well positioned in a challenging operating environment.

Hopes that benchmark covered bond issuance could restart next week have been reined in after reports that French president Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull out of the euro-zone contributed to renewed volatility today (Friday).

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Intesa Sanpaolo and revised the outlook on UBI Banca’s rating from stable to negative on Friday, because it expects low growth in Italy’s economy to pressure the banks’ asset quality.