News & Analysis: issuance

An Australian lawyer reports on efforts to gain approval for covered bond issuance there . . .  a U.S. dollar tap in Canada  and a Euro CB tap in France . . . plans for more covered bonds in Korea . . . a step forward for CB legislation in the U.S. . . . and more

BBVA scores a solid (though wide) Spanish CB issue . . . CFF and CIF Euromortgage tap existing issues . . . hopes for Australian covered bonds in 2011 ... and more

Some items of covered bond news do not rate their own story in this publication — often because they relate to geographic areas outside our focus, North America.  Even so, readers who want to keep up with covered bond news in general might find them interesting.

Barry Critchley in the Financial Post used Bank of Nova Scotia's debut issue of covered bonds (CBs) as a news peg to discuss the rise of this funding instrument in Canada (July 17).

"So far this year, [Canadian] banks have been to the market on seven occasions — in three currencies: US$, C$ and Swiss Francs," Critchley points out. This equals the total number of previous Canadian CB issues since the nation's first in 2007.

France's Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) has priced its second-ever covered bond denominated in U.S. dollars (July 13).

Pricing for a fixed-rate $1.5 billion tranche was at 75 basis points over mid-swaps, with a smaller, floating-rate tranche of $300 million at 75 basis points over Libor.  The issue matures in two years.