Last year's securitisation market conference in Barcelona featured a session dedicated to the question of whether covered bonds would sound 'the death knell' for mortgage securitisation (although no conference that we are aware of has yet discussed whether securitisation will presage the demise of the covered bond market). While the two markets have existed in parallel for a decade, there has been recent talk of them moving closer together. So far only Spain and the UK have seen substantial issuance in both markets, but regulatory changes across Europe - from the German 'True Sale Initiative' to the new Italian Covered Bond law - mean that the overlap can only grow. As competition intensifies for the underlying assets, investors' money and issuers' time, Richard Kemmish and Ted Packmohr from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's (DrKW) covered bond group offer a brief comparison of the two markets.
April 29, 2005
