Norway

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance on Tuesday defined what it considers a systemically important financial institutions, and said they should hold 2% more common equity tier 1 (CET1) than other Norwegian banks.

Covered bonds are finishing the week tighter with demand spurred after Bunds softened, allowing investors to hit absolute yield targets. Traders reported investors looking to extend maturities, though selective sales of long-dated Norwegian bonds have raised speculation of primary activity next week. Core to peripheral convergence is still broadly evident especially in Ireland, but signs of fatigue have become evident in long dated multi-Cédulas and selective short-dated single name Cédulas.

Eika Boligkreditt opened books on Wednesday for a €500m seven year covered bond that offered a spread not seen from Norway since January 2013, and one of the largest pick-ups from a core European issuer this year. But with a new issue premium of just 2bp, the funding was cheap for the borrower.

Norway’s Vardia Insurance Group on Thursday announced its plans to float on the Oslo Stock Exchange next month.

Eika Boligkreditt, formerly Terra Boligkreditt, has named leads for a deal roadshow and Deutsche Kreditbank has named lead for a euro benchmark, while two more covered bond deals could yet be mandated later on Monday for issuance on Tuesday.

Nordea Finland and Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt achieved the best results among the slate of deals that were issued by core covered bond issuers this week. Both transactions attracted among the highest level of over subscription, despite pricing at the tightest spreads.

Thursday’s suite of covered bond issues from Australia and Switzerland underscored a growing impression among bankers that pricing core transactions is taking more forethought and effort. Whereas deals were invariably easy to price last year, demand seems to have become more finite. Books are taking longer to build as investors need more cajoling to meet issuers’ funding targets, in stark contrast to peripheral credits.

The European Commission must ignore the counsel of the European Banking Authority, which has called for covered bonds to remain as level 2A assets within Basel III’s Liquidity Coverage Ratio. It must instead base its decision, due by June 30, on the EBA’s analysis that covered bonds are as liquid as sovereign bonds and good enough for Level 1 of the LCR.

There is an even chance that two deals could surface from Europe’s core and periphery next week, bankers said on Friday, but potential issuers have been perturbed by the performance of this week’s two deals, both of which have softened slightly. However, in both cases there were specific factors at work that are unlikely to impinge on prospective deals where there is high confidence of a strong reception.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt struggled to get investor traction on Tuesday morning for its €1bn long six year benchmark. The weak demand was in sharp contrast to last week’s €1.5bn five year bond from DNB Boligkreditt, with bankers away from the deal suggesting the long six year maturity may have been slightly too long for asset managers looking to shorten duration.

After a spate of seven year deals from Scandinavian banks, Norway’s DNB Boligkreditt was set to price a €1.5bn five year on Tuesday. This will sit well with investors’ year-end liquidity constraints, said bankers.

The new Norwegian government’s pre-election pledge to ease mortgage lending standards would be credit negative, Moody’s said on Monday. Norwegian households are already highly indebted, house prices are overvalued and inflating the credit bubble further could result in a failure to repay high LTV mortgage loans under stressed market conditions, it said.