Issuance

Mick YoungThe Australian dollar covered bond issued by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) this month was oversubscribed by about A$250 million (US $247.6 million). Approximately 75 percent of the bonds were sold to onshore Australian investors — predominantly banks — with the remainder largely taken up by Europeans.

This is the first Australian dollar denominated covered bond issued in more than three years.

Following in the footsteps of several Canadian banks plus Germany's LBBW and France's Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF), Barclay's Bank Plc launched a U.S. dollar-denominated covered bond (Sept. 14) in the amount of $1 billion.

The five-year bonds were priced at 90 basis points over mid-swaps — 109.5 basis points over comparable U.S. Treasuries — for a yield of 2.525%.

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

Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) tapped both of the U.S. dollar-denominated bonds it has issued to date, generating an additional $1 billion (July 27).

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.

Among potential Canadian issuers of U.S. dollar-denominated (USD) covered bonds, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) was the next shoe that many expected to drop — and now it has.

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.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) launched a three-year, U.S. dollar-denominated covered bond in the amount of $2.5 billion via Scotia Covered Bond Trust (July 15).

Pricing was at 52.2 basis points over the relevant benchmark, for a yield of 1.498%.

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.

Trouble in Denmark (with Basel III) ... covered bond stalwarts Crédit Agricole and LBBW price new issues, along with a debut from Korea Housing Finance Corp. ... 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.