The latest Danish quarterly sales of bonds to refinance adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) achieved healthy bid-to-cover ratios after Nykredit Realkredit kicked off activity on Monday, with longer dated paper offering relatively high spreads particularly well bid.

The euro covered bond market comfortably absorbed seven new euro benchmarks this week, with senior unsecured issuance following, as the market reopened after a positive outcome finally emerged from Greek negotiations on Monday morning.

In this article Florian Eichert, senior covered bond analyst at Crédit Agricole CIB, tries to assess at what point we will have a more normal covered bond market again that does not just rely on what the Eurosystem does or does not do.

Volatility sparked by a renewed sell-off in Bunds this week is set to decrease demand for any new euro covered bond benchmarks and divert issuance into shorter maturities, according to bankers, who have reined in supply expectations for the coming weeks.

Finland’s Ålandsbanken launched its largest ever covered bond on Tuesday, a Eu250m no-grow five year issue that the issuer’s head of group treasury said represented successful pricing and diversification, even if it had to pay up for the sub-benchmark size.

Realkredit Danmark (RD) sold a Dkr42.4bn (Eu5.68bn) 18 month floating rate note – the largest ever FRN in the Danish covered bond market – in auctions from Monday to yesterday (Thursday), with the size reflecting changes in the type of mortgage being taken out and the maturity a debate over negative coupons in Denmark.

SpareBank 1 SR-Bank is planning a debut, domestic covered bond through new 100% subsidiary SR-Boligkreditt later this month or early June ahead of potential international issuance, as it shifts away from SpareBank 1 Boligkreditt (SpaBol) to optimise funding and for regulatory reasons.

The Estonian Banking Association (Eesti Pangaliit) is working on a proposal for covered bond legislation that it expects to finalise soon, ahead of submission to the ministry of finance for official drafting. Mihkel Hollo, head of the covered bond working group at the association and project manager at Swedbank in Tallinn, discusses developments in Estonia.

DNB Bolgikreditt made its sterling covered bond debut on Monday with a £250m (Nkr2.90bn, Eu336m) five year floating rate, and an official at the issuer said the maturity, format and currency suited its needs.

Lately some investors have become a little concerned about Canadian and Norwegian covered bonds on the back of the major oil price drop of the last few months, write Crédit Agricole CIB covered bond analysts Florian Eichert and Stephan Dorner.