The European Covered Bond Council will in the coming months focus on addressing the impact of risk-weight floors for mortgages being proposed by the Basel Committee, which representatives of the Danish FSA and issuers questioned at an ECBC plenary yesterday (Thursday).
The Association of Swedish Covered Bond issuers (ASCB) has criticised the proposition that harmonisation of covered bond frameworks, as outlined in a European Commission paper, would be beneficial, as market participants responded to the consultation ahead of an originally-scheduled deadline of Wednesday.
The European Commission is open to allowing voluntary convergence of covered bond frameworks around EBA best practices, alongside a possible tightening of CRR eligibility, as an alternative to legislating moves towards harmonisation in a consultation paper released on Wednesday.
SR-Boligkreditt issued its first covered bond yesterday (Thursday), a Nkr2bn (Eu229m) five year deal that an official at the issuer said represented a decent start to its issuance, even if the pricing was marginally wider than expected amid a volatile market.
The Swedish FSA (Finansinspektionen, or FI) on Tuesday proposed amending regulations on the countercyclical capital buffer (CCB) to raise it from 1.0% to 1.5%.
Nordea and Svenska Handelsbanken first quarter results announced on Wednesday echoed those with which SEB kicked off the Nordic bank reporting season the previous Thursday, showing strong net financial items, although Nordea fell behind its peers on net interest income (NII) that for SEB and Handelsbanken proved resilient.
New Swedish mortgages originated from August must be amortised down to a LTV of 50%, under new regulation unveiled by the Swedish FSA that will be credit positive for Swedish cover pools, according to an analyst.
Arion Bank on Tuesday sold the first public euro transaction from an Icelandic bank since the collapse of the country’s financial industry in 2008, a Eu300m (Ikr44.9bn) three year deal that Arion’s head of funding said met with encouraging real money demand.
DNB on Wednesday became the first commercial bank from the Nordic region to sell a green bond, issuing a Nkr1bn (Eu115m) five year deal whose proceeds are earmarked for financing renewable energy projects.
Carsten Tirsbæk Madsen will in the new year take over as president of the Covered Bond & Mortgage Council, the umbrella organisation for the European Mortgage Federation and European Covered Bond Council.