Norway

A group of small Norwegian banks has set up a mortgage credit institution, Verd Boligkreditt, for the joint issuance of covered bonds. It will be run on their behalf by Sparebanken Vest, which also has its own covered bond vehicle.

SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt priced the first Norwegian jumbo since September 2008 yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, a Eu1bn three year deal that the issuer told The Cover made good on its commitment to benchmark covered bond issuance every year.

New issues from Spain and Norway launched this (Tuesday) morning after UBS’s second benchmark covered bond yesterday (Monday) are making this week busier than most market participants had been expecting.

UBS is set to price only its second covered bond, after having built an oversubscribed order book this (Monday) morning for a 10 year follow-up to its five year debut of September. And the first Norwegian euro benchmark of the year is expected tomorrow (Tuesday).

Swedish Covered Bond Corp sold a Nkr600m (Eu72m/Skr738m) deal yesterday (Tuesday), with investors seeking foreign covered bonds given the lack of domestic supply.

Moody’s has today (Tuesday) confirmed the Aa2 rating and “high” Timely Payment Indicator assigned to Terra Boligkreditt’s covered bonds after completing a review of whether Terra’s function as a group funding platform could make the cover pool less attractive to a potential purchaser in the event of an issuer default.

Norges Bank is planning to reverse temporary changes to its collateral requirements and tighten them beyond those that existed before they were eased, it announced today (Thursday). From February 2012 the Norwegian central bank will no longer accept bank securities as collateral, but covered bonds will remain eligible.

Moody’s yesterday (Tuesday) downgraded several Scandinavian financial institutions that either issue covered bonds or are closely linked to issuers, concluding reviews for possible downgrade that were initiated on 22 July.

Norwegian internet bank Gjensidige Bank has established a mortgage bank for the issuance of covered bonds, Gjensidige Bank Boligkreditt.

DnB Nor Boligkreditt issued a Nkr1.25bn (Eu145m) five year floating rate covered bond today (Wednesday) that it is not swapping with the central bank.

Nordea Hypotek has issued a Nkr750m (Eu86m) five year covered bond, catering to Norwegian krone investors that need triple-A securities but are struggling to find paper from domestic issuers.

Norway’s Sparebanken Øst has set up a covered bond issuer.