UK

Nordea Eiendomskreditt has priced its first sterling covered bond backed by Norwegian residential loans. The £500m three year floater appealed to investors on a number of counts and provided competitive funding for the issuer.

RBS was unable to attract a sufficient quorum to pass a series of swap amendments to its covered bond programme.

RBS announced several proposals related to the swap triggers in its covered bond programme after being downgraded by Moody’s. The plans, which will be subject to an investor vote, will allow RBS to remain the swap counterparty and thereby help it to avoid the higher cost of employing an alternative swap provider as was envisaged under the original swap agreement.

Goldman Sachs will give investors more time to understand the unique structure of its Fixed Income Global Structured Covered Obligation (Figsco) and appreciate just how different it is from a pure market value deal, or a covered bond (This story has one comment).

Nationwide became on Tuesday the third British financial institution to offer a three year floating rate note (FRN) this year. Looking to harness the remnants of the momentum it built in the market during its dual tranche euro deal at the end of last month, the building society’s deal was more oversubscribed than the other two similar deals — from Abbey and Lloyds Bank — done in January.

Well done Goldman Sachs, you’ve managed to devise a structure that has both the covered bond market and the ABS market talking at the same time. The covered bond market seems to have adopted the attitude that ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, just don’t try to pass it off as a real covered bond’. The ABS market seem to have adopted an ‘anything the covered bond market can do..’ attitude.

Since Goldman’s FIGSCO (Fixed Income Global Structured Covered Obligation) trade hit the screen, capital markets commentators, The Cover included, have been scratching heads and stroking beards about what it actually is.

Goldman Sachs may have been hoping that it could get away with calling its newly structured triple recourse hybrid a covered bond. Though it is being marketed to covered bond investors, FIGSCO is clearly nothing like a classical covered bond. But Commerzbank, NIBC and NordLB all encountered controversy when they successfully issued innovative deals, suggesting the clumsily named acronym may be a success – especially in an environment of furious yield chasing and a shrinking triple A universe.

Nationwide opened books on Wednesday for the first post-crisis UK dual tranche covered transaction, and only the second from any jurisdiction this year. The success of the deal may establish dual tranche syndication as a benchmark for those issuers looking to raise size without compromising execution.

Nationwide has mandated leads for the third UK covered bond in euros this year. Though a firm decision on structure and tenor has not been taken, the issuer is testing appetite for a dual tranche offering that could involve the longest dated issuance seen in euros for years, to be launched Wednesday.

Two of the strongest RMBS platforms in the European securitization market hit the market this week, and showed investors are still eager to grab the highest quality paper.

Yorkshire Building Society issued its first euro issuance in four years on Wednesday morning, a deal that bankers said offered a generous spread to fellow UK names.