The Cover 2012 covered bond awards poll
*Voting is anonymous though we do ask for contact details to avoid duplication.
Lead manager awards
Which of the following banks is the best global covered bond house for 2012?
Barclays
Barclays is ranked first in both jumbo and all covered bonds (all currencies) for the award period in all the key league tables with nearly 50% more market share than the number two bank. It was the only bank to bring public transactions in euros, sterling, Swiss francs, Australian dollars and Norwegian krone. Of the 78 issuers from 16 jurisdictions that issued jumbos during the awards period, Barclays worked on 41 from 13 jurisdictions. It arranged five of the 12 inaugural programmes in the last 12 months, more than any other bank. It has been the number one covered bond liquidity provider for the last three years, according to Greenwich Associates. It was joint dealer on Intesa’s LM, which achieved the highest ever take-up of any LM exercise.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is second spot in all currencies (dollars/Swiss francs/sterling/euros) and has a 6% market share. Its notable deals include Toronto Dominion’s $3bn five year, one of the largest ever dollar covered bonds, Nordea Bank Finland’s Sfr250m 3 year FRN, CRH’s Sfr625m dual tranche; and RBS’s £1bn 12 year debut. BNP also managed CBA’s €1.5bn five year, the first Australian euro legislative covered bond, and Westpac’s €1bn five year in July 2012. It created the BNP Paribas Covered Bond Index and the Diversified US dollar Covered Bond Index.
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank has dominated the euro and dollar markets in 2012 with mandates from all regions including Europe, Australasia and North America – in spite of its competition being reliant on enormous reciprocity. The bank is ranked third in The Cover’s 12 month rolling all covered bond league table, polled top in European Yankees and broke into the Canadian market with the TD transaction. Deutsche provides timely and succinct European research, has a reputable global secondary trading capacity and conducted eight of the 10 covered bond liability management exercises of 2012.
HSBC
HSBC acted as bookrunner on Australian dollar, euro, sterling and dollar benchmarks, and printed deals for issuers from 11 jurisdictions. It was bookrunner for inaugural issuers in dollars, sterling and Australian dollars and lead managed an inaugural Australian dollar deal for CBA, which was the catalyst for deepening that market. HSBC was also bookrunner on the first non self-led short dated sterling FRN for Nationwide, opening the way for six more issuers to take £2.9bn in short sterling FRNs. The bank has also lead managed tough trades in difficult markets – such as UniCredit’s €1bn 10 year.
UBS
UBS ranks second in The Cover’s all covered bond league table year to date, with a 5.6% market share up from sixth in 2011. It ranks fifth with a 5% market share in the all covered bond rolling 12 month league tables. In dollars it lead managed six of the last 13 deals. UBS is one of only two houses that lead managed benchmarks in euros, dollars, sterling, Swiss francs and Australian dollars, and it also introduced ANZ to non domestic dollar, euro and Swiss franc markets. The bank led 14 out of 27 deals and 11 out of 20 debuts in Australia and New Zealand, and worked on several covered tenders. UBS is chief advisor to the Government of Australia, and the top liquidity provider on Bloomberg e-trading.
Which of the following banks is the best euro lead manager?
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas ranks third in the all euro covered bond league table with just over 8% market share. The borrower has issued €1.25bn, which theoretically raises it to number two on a net, reciprocity adjusted basis. It led CBA’s debut euro deal, ANZ National Bank’s debut €500m five year and Westpac’s second euro covered bond since legislation. BNP Paribas is active across all jurisdictions, notably in Scandinavia where it worked for DNB Boligkreditt on three of the issuer’s deals.
Natixis
Natixis holds top spot in The Cover’s all euro covered bonds league table with a 9.2% market share and a deal value of nearly €13bn. Natixis is a top five liquidity provider on Bloomberg market-making on over 700 covered bonds, and has worked across jurisdictions including Spain, UK, Germany, Swiss, NZ, and France. The bank has the ability to bring challenging names, and worked on three deals for Spanish issuers. It contributed to establishing the Australian dollar market with the first 10 1/2 year deal, in addition to one Australian inaugural, two LM exercises and structuring two covered bond programmes.
Barclays
Barclays has top spot in The Cover’s all euro jumbo €1bn+ league table with an 11% market share having worked on 18 trades with a market value of €6.79m in the last 12 months. The bank is number two in the all euro league table with an 8.6% market share working with 66 issuers from 15 jurisdictions. Barclays reopened the market after summer 2011 with ING’s 10 year, and has worked on challenging trades including reopening Spain with Santander’s €2bn three year. It was lead manager on seven of 10 €1.75bn+ deals including Nordea’s €2.25bn five year, the largest euro covered bond of the year. It was bookrunner on CRH’s 12 year, the longest euro tenor of the year, and joint dealer manager on Intesa’s LM exercise.
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank ranks third with an 8.5% market share in The Cover’s €1bn+ 12 month rolling league table, having worked on 18 deals worth €6.4bn. It is fifth in the all euro covered bond league table with a 6.7% market share having worked on 49 trades worth €9.4bn. Deutsche’s notable deals include Münchener Hypo’s €1bn 10 year, and those for challenged issuers such as Banesto, Sabadell and Popular. It has also worked on deals with a considerable breadth of distribution, including SG’s €1.5bn 7 year which drew 250 orders.
UniCredit
UniCredit is number five in the all euro covered bond league table. It is one of the very few institutions active in the covered bond asset class as issuer, underwriter and investor for more than a century. German speaking investors continue to be the main drivers of any new issue, thus a group with a lead manager with strong placement capacity in this region provides the best initial momentum for a successful deal.
Which of the following banks is the best dollar lead manager?
BAML
Between the 15th July 2011 and 18th July 2012, Bank of America Merrill Lynch underwrote more dollar covered bonds than any other US house. It has a 7% market share based on The Cover’s 12 month rolling league table which puts it in fourth place and only slightly below JPMorgan and RBS. Unlike the top league table banks it has not issued a dollar benchmark recently, and therefore does not benefit ostensibly from reciprocity based mandates. BofA Merrill has led a good number of debut dollar issuers since 2010.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan is ranked second in the rolling 12 month all dollar covered bond league table with an 8.2% market share, having worked on 12 deals with a value of $4.16bn and no reciprocity. Its notable deals include UBS’ $2bn five year, which attracted $3bn orders from 75 accounts, Westpac’s dual tranche three year and CBA’s $2bn five year which attracted $4bn orders from 150 accounts. CBA’s was one of the most widely distributed dollar deals. It has also worked for a string of Canadian issuers in the last year, the most recent deal being the Bank of Montreal’s five year.
Barclays
Barclays far outstrips the competition with poll position in The Cover’s all dollar covered bond league table with a 14.5% market share or $7.4bn, which is more than 6% over the second polling position. It has itself issued $7.3bn (equivalent) globally. Barclays has executed more benchmark dollar transactions and for more issuers than any other dealer in the past 12 months. It has led 10 out of 12 Canadian benchmarks in dollar and brought $32bn of the total $47bn of supply to the market seen in the past 12 months.
UBS
UBS ranks second in all dollar covered bonds with a value above $1bn, with a market share of 8.4% having worked on nine deals with a value of $3.7bn in the last 12 months. It holds an 8.8% market share for 2012 year to date compared with a 1.8% market share in 2011. It has the most improved US dollars ranking, fourth in the all covered bond league table with a market share of 7.4% having worked on nine deals in the last 12 months. UBS has a dedicated trading desk in Europe and the US and has led deals from the UK, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden and Canada in the last nine months.
Which of the following banks is the best sterling lead manager?
Lloyds
Lloyds is number two in The Cover’s rolling 12-month sterling covered bond league table. Each sterling deal won by Lloyds in 2012 was a first in its franchise including Abbey, Coventry, RBS, Barclays and NAB which was the first sterling deal from a non-UK bank. The bank has good experience in the structuring and execution of secured funding.
RBS
RBS consistently ranks amongst the top three book-runners in its home market. It joint led the debut/inaugural sterling for 6 out of 10 debut issuers and has been on 11 out of 22 transactions including Nationwide’s market opener in February 2011. Between July 2011 and July 2012 RBS has joint led eight out of 15 public deals in sterling covered bonds and has led deals for Lloyds, Santander UK and Leeds Building Society. It also joint led the debut issuance in the sterling covered bond market for four out of five issuers.
Barclays
Barclays is number three in The Cover’s rolling 12-month sterling covered bond league table. It has led debut transactions in the floating rate market for Barclays, Coventry, Abbey and Clydesdale as well as NAB, which remains the only non-UK issuer to access the public sterling covered bond market. Barclays arranged Clydesdale’s covered bond programme and was a joint bookrunner on its oversubscribed dual tranche issuance.
Which of the following banks is the best non-core currency lead manager?
HSBC
UBS
Barclays
Which of the following banks is the best for structuring deals?
Barclays
Barclays was the arranger for five of 12 covered bond programmes that launched inaugural public transactions during the awards period; no other bank arranged more than two programmes during the same period. It also arranged programmes for 21 of the 75 issuers that issued public benchmarks during the awards period, three times as much as the second most active bank. It has established more covered bond programmes for accessing central bank repo than any of its peers.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas helped numerous global issuers establish new programmes. It actively advised on the legislation and structure of the regulatory frameworks. It is active in Cyprus and in jurisdictions that are gearing up to give banks access to covered bond funding. BNPP is working on new programmes in CEE, and Australia where it helped ensure adoption of the indexation of assets.
HSBC
HSBC provides advice on structural issues to over 75 covered bond clients across 17 countries, arranging and structuring 20 new programmes since 2007. It developed expertise in improving TPI for a Portuguese issuer to Probable-High when other Portuguese programme TPIs were designated Very Improbable helping to maintain ECB eligibility. It conducted restructuring of a French programme to help expand the number of federations in its group to comply with ratings criteria, and led the way in offering structured swap solutions to issuers requiring third party hedging. HSBC was swap counterparty on all UK covered bonds that have third party swaps since December 2010.
Which of the following banks is the best advisor in liability management?
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas worked for AXA, CMCIC, GE, Danske, ABN Amro to put in place an action plan to comply with new Standard & Poor’s counterparty criteria. Banks have turned to BNPP for advice even though it was not the programme arranger, this includes issuers such as ABN, ING, SNS, Intesa, Cypriot banks, Sparebanken and DnB Boligkreditt, Danske and Sampo.
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank has managed eight of the 10 covered bond liability management trades this year. As opposed to regular new issuance, these deals are the most strategic and intensive of all and are always C-suite decisions. Its closest competitors in this space are not covered bond powerhouses.
JP Morgan
JPMorgan is ALM advisor for BHH, Cajamar, Novagalicia, BCP and Caixa Catalunya. It is ranked in the top two for number of ALM led deals and is the only house which acted as sole ALM adviser. JPMorgan has an average success rate of 16% which suggests ability to identify bond holders and advise on a fair price. It has never had extremes in success rates, suggesting balanced advice serving both issuers and investors. JPMorgan won plaudits from BHH for a “fantastic job” on its covered bond tender.
Which of the following banks is best syndicate manager?
Barclays
Barclays ranks in the top three for league tables in the three major funding currencies (euros, US dollars and sterling), and has brought public transactions in each of the six funding currencies for international covered bonds (euros, US dollars, sterling, Swiss francs, Australian dollars and Norwegian krone). It reopened the covered bond market after the summer break in 2011 with ING’s 10 year, and reopened Spain with Santander’s three year in February, the first Spanish covered bond since May 2011. Barclays acted as lead manager on seven of 10 covered bonds deals that were €1.75bn or larger, including Nordea Bank Finland’s €2.25bn size year 2017, the largest euro denominated covered bond of the awards period.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas holds top three rankings in The Cover and Dealogic’s all covered, euro jumbo, and all euro covered bond league tables. It has adopted a unified platform across senior unsecured, asset backed securities and covered bonds under the strategic guidance of Derry Hubbard, global head of FIG syndicate. Syndication and sales set up has been a key component of BNP Paribas’ global success in covered bonds, allowing for harmonised client coverage and investor visibility across products and currencies.
UniCredit
UniCredit’s strong placement capacity among German speaking investors provides the best initial momentum for a successful deal. This investor region is in the core focus of the bank’s distribution network and makes it one of the top European covered bond placement houses. UniCredit ranks fourth in Dealogic’s euro denominated covered bond league table with a 6.48% market share over the past 12 months. It is among the few underwriting banks that have managed to be in the top 10 league table for covered bonds since their inception over a decade ago.
Which of the following banks has shown the most improvement?
Credit Agricole
The bank entered the top 10 euro covered bond league table in 2011, is ranked 7th among bookrunners for euro covered bond trades over the last 12 months, according to Dealogic. The bank executed 50 euro mandates last year, against a challenging market environment. And the number of first-ever mandates, its ranking in euro covered bond trading and the highly diversified range of private placements executed illustrate a strong and dynamic progression.
JP Morgan
The bank is ranked 8th among lead managers on Dealogic’s year to date all covered bond league table, after being ranked 20th at the same point in 2011. JP Morgan’s market share has increased from 1.9% to 4.5%, and it has acted as lead manager in sterling, Australian dollars and Swiss franc debut deals. The bank has also been an active lead manager in the euro and dollar market, and lead managed deals from Antipodean, Scandinavian, Canadian and European issuers. Against the global trend it has doubled the amount underwritten from $7.4bn to $14.15bn.
LBBW
The bank has maintained operative excellence during a period of ambitious restructuring, while strengthening its position in a highly challenging and recessive market. LBBW re-established itself in the top 10 position across euro benchmarks, taps and private placements with 51 trades year to date.
Which of the following banks is the best provider of liquidity?
Barclays
Ranked number one in covered bonds for the past three years and increased its market share gap to rivals, according to Greenwich Associates. More than 80% of Barclays’ secondary turnover is with clients, and over-the-counter trades are 77% of total turnover, versus 23% electronic trading. Provides balance sheet and risk limits for all covered bond issuers. Has consistently increased turnover with asset managers, pension funds, insurance firms and banks.
SG CIB
Ranks consistently in the top 3 covered bond liquidity providers with an average market share of 9% on Bloomberg trading and has ranked top 3 on Tradeweb, Bondvision and Marketaxess. Has consistently increased its balance sheet allocation to covered bond secondary trading. Has global team of five traders covering euros, dollars and sterling. Not scared to trade volatile names; trading turnover in Cedulas accounted for 27% of total turnover in the last year. Helped investors unwind positions in Bankia, Multi-Cedulas and other stressed names like DexMA.
Natixis
Ranked in the top five most active covered bond traders on Bloomberg Trading, and the most active player in May and July 2012. Ranked as a top five market-maker for over 15 years with top-ranking hit-ratios above 30% and market making on more than 700 references. 55 years of combined experience on the trading team. Provides issuers with additional funding sources via EMTNs and FRNs.
Which of the following banks is best for covered bond research?
Crédit Agricole
Through its covered bond sentiment index and regular client surveys CA-CIB provides insight into investors’ and issuers’ thinking. It publishes informative commentary within minutes of headline news, and provides a monthly covered bond data library as well as comprehensive coverage of market developments. The research team organises regular presentations in Frankfurt and London, and CA-CIB chaired both the data and statistics working groups in 2012.
Commerzbank
Commerzbank has been ranked in the top 2 for best research by at least one poll in each of the last six years. Its Pfandbrief Weekly provides timely insight in English and German on market developments and fundamental issues in the covered bond market. It publishes a bi-annual transparency report on German Pfandbrief pools. Commerzbank also provides a comprehensive database with links to the pool reports, prospectuses, presentations and rating reports of issuers in multiple jurisdictions.
DZ Bank
DZ Bank provides regular profiles of 15 separate covered bond jurisdictions. These monitor reports cover the housing market, economy and legal framework of the country, as well as recent covered bond spread movements. Each monitor report also provides a detailed comparison of issuers’ cover pools. In addition, the research team publishes bi-weekly research including updates on market developments, spread movements and regulatory changes. This research also provides benchmark based recommendations on how to weigh different market segments.
Issuer awards
Which of the following is the best global issuer?
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
DNB Boligkreditt
Muenchener Hypothekenbank
Which of the following is the best euro issuer?
Muenchener Hypothekenbank
Nordea
Berlin-Hannoversche Hypothekenbank
Which of the following is the best dollar issuer?
National Australia Bank
CIBC
UBS
Which of the following is the best sterling issuer?
LTSB
Nationwide
RBS
Which of the following is the best issuer in non-core currencies?
CIBC
ANZ
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Deal awards
Which of the following should be the overall Deal Of The Year?
Muenchener Hypothekenbank 1.75% €1bn June 2022
UniCredit 5% €1bn October 2021
Nordea 2.375% €2.25bn July 2017
Commonwealth Bank of Australia 3% €1.5bn May 2022
Toronto Dominion $5bn September 2014/16 (dual tranche)
Norddeutsche Landesbank 1.625% €500m July 2017
Which of the following should be euro deal of the year?
Muenchener Hypothekenbank 1.75% €1bn June 2022
Berlin-Hannoversche Hypothekenbank 1.375% €1bn May 2017
CRH 4% €2bn June 2022
ING 3.625% €1.75bn August 2021
Santander 3.25% €2bn February 2015
Which of the following was the best dollar deal of the year?
Toronto Dominion $5bn 2014/2016 (dual tranche)
UBS 2.25% $2bn March 2017
Credit Suisse 1.625% $2bn March 2015
Bank of Nova Scotia $2.75bn March 2017 (dual tranche)
Muenchener Hypothekenbank 1.125% $500m July 2015
Which of the following should be best sterling deal of the year?
LTSB 5.125% £1.25bn March 2025
Nationwide 165bp+3mL £650m January 2015
RBS 5.125% £1bn January 2024
Which of the following should be best non-core currency deal of the year?
ANZ Sfr725m February 2015/2019 (dual tranche)
Suncorp Metway A$1.6bn December 2014/2016 (dual tranche)
National Australia Bank 145bp+3mL £500m January 2015
Which of the following is the best debut benchmark?
NordLB 1.625% €500m July 2017
UBS 1.875% $1.5bn January 2015
Commonwealth Bank of Australia 2.625% €1.5bn January 2017
Click here for the poll.