Norway

Fitch Ratings on Friday changed from stable to negative the outlook of Sparebank 1 SMN’s and Sparebank 1 Nord-Norge’s long term A ratings and put Sparebank 1 SR Bank’s long term individual debt rating of A on negative watch.

Five medium-sized Norwegian savings banks have put in place the necessary preparations to issue covered bonds and received approval to swap these with the central bank for government securities under the country’s Nkr350bn (Eu39bn) support scheme.

Standard & Poor’s on Friday changed its outlook on DnB Nor from stable to negative on expectations that the Norwegian bank’s asset quality will deteriorate further.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt today (Monday) executed its inaugural covered bond issue, but, like other Norwegian issuance in the past month, it is being retained.

In brief: Storebrand Kredittforetak has increased and retained its Nkr1.5bn May 2011 issue by Nkr2bn to further build up its unutilised holdings of covered bonds that can be used to access Norges Banks’ liquidity facility.

Norway’s Sparebanken Vest is preparing to launch its first covered bonds, having set up Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt.

Storebrand Kredittforetak has increased its Nkr1bn April 2011 issue by Nkr500m (Eu58m), following DnB Nor Boligkreditt and Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt in building up unutilised holdings of covered bonds that it can use to access the Norges Bank liquidity facility that was announced on 12 October.

In brief: DnB Nor today (Tuesday) detailed its capacity to access the new liquidity measures announced by the Norwegian ministry of finance at the weekend.

Storebrand Kredittforetak on Friday issued the first tranche off a new five and a half year fixed rate covered bond of up to Nkr2bn with a yield of 5.95% per annum. The issue is the Norwegian institution’s fourth under a programme that was established in the spring of this year.

EuroWeek, in partnership with UniCredit, recently held a Nordic roundtable where major issuers discussed their experiences during the past year and how they have coped during the crisis.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt and the Swedish Covered Bond Corp showed the new realities of the covered bond market this week, taking spreads to new wides to win over investors. The Cover spoke to officials at the two institutions about the thinking behind their new issues.

Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt demonstrated that the five year part of the curve is open to the right deals by pricing a Eu1bn transaction this (Wednesday) lunchtime. The new issue also showed that covered bond issuers may find that paying up is the only way to compete for investors’ attention, as demonstrated by the level at which a potential new issue is being soft-sounded.