UK

The UK’s Nationwide Building Society today priced a groundbreaking 15-year covered bond which, for the first time, has attracted UK insurance company demand on a scale that was, until recently, not imaginable. Recent changes to Solvency II, a significant back up in spreads and several other factors have forced these buyers to look at the product with a fresh set of eyes. And where Nationwide has trailed –others are sure to follow.

Santander will bring the first UK prime RMBS deal of the year to market, through Holmes 2011-1. It has mandated BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and Santander GBM for a roadshow to start next week.

After a slow Wednesday, the European primary market aggressively picked up pace on Thursday with a range of seven deals from six jurisdictions was announced. Many have gone live and all appear to have been readily digested –in large part reflecting the constructive underlying tone to credit markets.

Moody’s expects negative rating actions on covered bonds to substantially outnumber any positive actions in the year ahead, due principally to weakness in the sovereign and banking sectors.

The UK’s Abbey yesterday priced a Eu750m seven year UK regulated covered bond in line with guidance at 150bp over mid swaps. Though ostensibly a smooth book build, those close to the deal said it was far from straightforward, in large part owing to the pricing challenges it faced with respect to its parent company, Santander. Nonetheless, with careful attention to pricing comparables and deal size, a good quality book was successfully achieved.

News earlier this week that the German regulator, Bafin, had sent out a draft letter regarding the treatment of structured covered bonds, has added to concerns that certain structures may see renewed selling pressure. But for some investors this may herald an investment opportunity.

Nationwide building society has amended its Eu45bn euro covered bond programme to allow the issuance of Namensschuldverschreibung, registered bonds issued under German law.

Lloyds TSB today priced a Eu750m 12-year UK covered bond as much as 10bp outside initial guidance at mid swaps plus 150bp –yielding a juicy 4.875%, via joint leads Lloyds TSB, Natixis, UBS and UniCredit.

Royal Bank of Scotland launched a Eu1bn seven year transaction that leads BNP Paribas, ING, RBS and UBS priced at 125bp, the middle of guidance.

The covered bond market has experienced its busiest ever week with as many as 15 deals pricing, giving a grand total of about Eu19bn over the holiday shortened week.

Barclays Bank yesterday (Wednesday) priced a Eu1bn 10-year via joint leads Barclays Capital, Commerzebank, Danske, Lloyds TSB, Natixis and Santander. Books opened at 10am on Wednesday before closing just three and a half hours later with an oversubscription of 1.3 times.

The iTraxx senior financials is trading wider ahead of the release of the EC’s latest draft consultation paper, which is likely to confirm suspicions that an EU wide initiative on bank bail-ins is going to be hard-coded into regulation.