Pre-migration untagged articles

Norway’s Terra Boligkreditt launched its first covered bond in euros yesterday (Thursday), showing the growing range of possibilities in the covered bond market since its reopening last week.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp this week released its draft policy statement on covered bond issuance in the US, setting a provisional 4% limit on issuance relative to total liabilities but for the first time giving the product privileged treatment in the event of an issuer’s bankruptcy.

The pace of banking reform became considerably more urgent this week following the delivery of the Financial Stability Forum’s report to the G7 group of large economies.

THIS week proved once again that Australian dollars are at the top of the non-core currency heap, as GE Capital Australia and Rabobank Nederland issued bonds in the currency targeting retail investors, mostly in Europe, though with some Asian involvement.

GOLDEN KEY, the SIV-lite managed by Avendis Financial Services that fell apart last August, this week appointed Deloitte as a receiver and said that capital note investors had no prospect of getting their money back, while senior investors probably would not get a full return.

Bankers and investors may profess an aversion to second tier banks and property companies at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped a clutch of Russian property companies successfully selling high yielding deals in recent weeks.

Hypo Real Estate International priced a Eu1bn two year Hypothekenpfandbrief at 9bp over mid-swaps on Tuesday, taking mortgage backed German covered bond issues to new wides and showing that no country is immune to the new pricing realities that have been evident since Danske reopened the market at the beginning of last week.

The Republic of Hungary (A2/BBB+/BBB+) made its debut in the Swiss franc bond market this week on Tuesday, as it priced a dual tranche Sfr350m ($350m).

The notional amount outstanding of credit default swaps grew a staggering 37% to $62.2tr in the second half of 2007, it was reported at the annual general meeting of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association in Vienna this week.

STRONG demand for sovereign and agency commercial paper this week gave those borrowers more opportunities to fund at historically tight levels, but some are running up against programme ceilings, possibly freeing up cash for cheaper bank names.

The market for short dated puttable floating rate notes expanded further this week as issuers prepared to take a two year view found sizeable funding opportunities.

CAIRN FINANCIAL Products has replaced Sailfish Structured Investment Management as manager of White Marlin, a $1.2bn investment grade corporate synthetic CDO.