A brief payment delay on a covered bond from Norway’s Sør Boligkreditt that matured last month and which was due to an operational error has no credit impact and is extremely unlikely to happen again, according to Moody’s, which rates the issuer’s covered bonds Aaa.

Moody’s noted that the soft bullet mechanism used by SCBC for the first time on a Eu1bn covered bond launched on Tuesday of last week (30 September) reduces fire-sale risk associated with covered bonds in the event of default, which is the major driver of cover pool losses.

ESMA released final draft RTS on central clearing requirements for OTC derivatives on Wednesday of last week (1 October) that featured several concessions to the covered bond industry, but the regulator did not make all the requested changes and related changes to Norwegian and Swedish laws are now in store.

Finland’s Ålandsbanken sold its largest single tranche covered bond on Tuesday, a Eu150m four year issue backed by a Finnish cover pool, and plans to return before year-end with a krona-denominated inaugural covered bond out of a Swedish cover pool.

Payment on a Nkr30m (Eu3.66m) maturing covered bond of Sør Boligkreditt, the issuer of Norway’s Sparebanken Sør, was delayed by three days over last weekend because an amendment to the structure three years ago was not correctly registered in a payment system, according to an official at the issuer.

DNB Boligkreditt priced a Eu1.25bn (Nkr10.2bn) five year covered bond at 3bp through mid-swaps on Monday, making for a favourable if modest return for the Norwegian issuer after an absence of 10 months, during which it has progressively tapped an FRN up to Eu850m and raised a record amount domestically.

SCBC sold its first euro benchmark in three and a half years on Tuesday, a Eu1bn (Skr9.1bn) seven year that is understood to be the first soft bullet covered bond out of Sweden, and an official at the issuer said it will now be returning to the euro-denominated market on a yearly basis.