Sweden

Sweden’s Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken priced its first seven year euro benchmark covered bond yesterday (Wednesday), a Eu1bn maximum deal that the issuer said cleared at the re-offer spread “very handsomely”.

New rules effective 1 October that place an 85% loan-to-value limit on Swedish residential mortgages will strengthen the credit quality of covered bonds backed by Swedish home loans, according to Moody’s.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken will today (Wednesday) price a Eu1bn seven year issue at the tight end of revised guidance after meeting with strong demand for the first Swedish euro benchmark since June. Meanwhile, Italy’s UBI Banca is gauging interest for a new issue, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has opened books for an Australian dollar debut, and a mandate for a debut off an innovative programme has been added to the deal pipeline.

Spain’s Unicaja will today (Tuesday) price a Eu750m five year cédulas hipotecarias issue, more than a marketed Eu500m minimum deal size, although syndicate bankers away from the leads said the deal had at times appeared to struggle. Issuance was otherwise restricted to a tap and floating rate note, although there are rumours of deals in the pipeline and CIBC has mandated for an Australian dollar debut.

In brief: Stadshypotek, a subsidiary of Svenska Handelsbanken, is in the 144A market with a debut dollar benchmark.

SNS Bank will today (Tuesday) price the second long dated Dutch benchmark covered bond in a week, while Banco Popular Español has set the spreads for an exchange that is open until Friday and a Swedish covered bond issuer has set up a US MTN programme.

Standard & Poor’s has cleared at AAA, on stable outlook, mortgage covered bonds issued by Swedbank Mortgage and removed them from negative review.

The composition of the cover pool backing mortgage Pfandbriefe issued by SEB AG is set to change significantly as a result of a sale of the bank’s German retail business to Banco Santander, but the issuer is committed to defending the covered bonds’ Aa1 Moody’s rating.

Standard & Poor’s has promoted Swedish covered bonds to the highest programme category under its revised rating methodology. The reclassification comes before a Wednesday deadline the rating agency set itself to conclude reviews initiated as a result of the change in its criteria.

Sweden’s SEB launched a benchmark covered bond yesterday (Thursday) to demonstrate its ability to access the market in uncertain times, the issuer told The Cover, despite having last year pre-funded a large amount of debt maturing this year and the beginning of next.

Covered bond issuance of Eu500m or greater deals this week is set to top Eu10bn today (Thursday), with SEB having launched the 12th such issue. Meanwhile, WestImmo launched the third Eu500m Pfandbrief of the week this morning.