Timo Ruotsalainen, managing director, Aktia Real Estate Mortgage Bank, gave Nordic FIs & Covered an update about the Finnish group’s switch to issuing directly out of Aktia Bank, and discussed other developments.
The International Monetary Fund has voiced its support for regulatory initiatives underway in Norway such as plans for higher risk weights for mortgages and closer scrutiny of covered bond issuance. Meanwhile, the Riksbank said Sweden’s banks need to be more resilient in the long run.
Nordea Bank positioned itself as the tightest European FIG credit in the Samurai market yesterday (Wednesday), pricing a ¥91.2bn (Eu693m, Skr5.96bn) senior unsecured issue inside Rabobank.
SEB added another string to its bow by making its US dollar covered bond debut on Tuesday, pricing a $1.5bn five year deal on the back of strong demand and only 1bp wide of where Stadshypotek tapped the market last week.
Nordea Bank has filed a shelf registration to issue up to ¥500bn of Samurai paper and the same in Uridashi format, and is targeting four Samurai tranches for pricing next week, according to bankers close to the project.
DLR Kredit sold a heavily oversubscribed Dkr2bn (Eu268m) October 2016 senior secured issue on Tuesday, benefitting from a tightening of spreads after the ECB rate cut at the beginning of May, according to the issuer and leads.
Svenska Handelsbanken subsidiary Stadshypotek sold a $1.25bn (Eu970m) five year covered bond yesterday (Thursday), attracting some $1.7bn of demand in a return to form after a difficult euro benchmark in March.
Covered bonds’ possible role in stoking house price inflation came under scrutiny at a covered bond investor conference in Frankfurt yesterday (Thursday), with panellists saying that further regulatory focus on the asset class akin to that seen in Norway is only to be expected.
Swedbank and Sveriges Riksbank came out as winners in The Covered Bond Report’s inaugural Awards for Excellence, which were announced on Tuesday, while Stadshypotek was highly commended.
After publishing a revised CRD IV package on 26 March, the European Parliament finally passed the CRD IV package that comprised the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) together with the Capital Requirement Regulation (CRR) on 16 April.