Fitch Ratings analysts toured Scandinavia earlier this month and Nordic FIs & Covered spoke to bank and covered bond analysts at the rating agency about their views on Nordic funding, house prices and more.

SEB launched the first Swedish euro benchmark covered bond in nearly a year on Monday after feeling that it was “due time” to return to what is its most strategic foreign market, said an official at the issuer, with a more acceptable cross-currency basis swap also spurring the deal.

Norway’s Fana Sparebank obtained its first issuer rating on Wednesday, Baa2 from Moody’s, as its seeks to obtain a rating of covered bonds issued by its Boligkreditt subsidiary in a bid to improve domestic capital market access and funding costs, according to the bank’s CFO.

Jonny Sylvén, senior advisor, Association of Swedish Covered Bond issuers (ASCB), spoke to Nordic Financial Institutions & Covered about latest Swedish regulatory developments, asset encumbrance, and labelling.

Moody’s affirmed Aktia Bank at A3 yesterday (Wednesday), but revised the outlook from stable to negative, a move that an Aktia official said was to be expected given that the bank will no longer be the central credit institution for the POP and savings banks in Finland.

Moody’s changed its outlook on Norway’s banking system from negative to stable yesterday (Wednesday) as a result of improved and above euro-area growth forecasts, but also noted that Norwegian banks’ high reliance on wholesale funding could expose them to market volatility.

Strong increases in deposit volumes were highlights of full year 2012 results reported by Sweden’s SBAB Bank and Länsförsäkringar Bank last week, with SBAB trebling deposits year-on-year and moving towards its goal of achieving a more balanced funding mix.

SpareBank 1 SMN today (Thursday) emerged with a senior unsecured transaction that it had been targeting since at least October, when it went on the first of two roadshows, while Stadshypotek priced the first Nordic sterling covered bond on Monday.

Handelsbanken reported a pre-tax profit of SEK4.1bn (Q4 2011: SEK4.1bn), which was 4% below consensus expectations, driven by higher one-off costs in a modest housekeeping drive similar to SEB’s announcement two weeks ago.

Moody’s said last week that the demise of Sparekassen Lolland is credit negative for Danish banks, but an official at Jyske Bank, which is taking over the regional savings bank, said that the rating agency’s view is backwards looking and that the takeover sends a positive signal.