July 2007
Covered bonds: Borrowers chafe at rating agencies’ demands
by Alex Chambers and Jethro Wookey
"Ratings agencies are becoming more and more demanding in terms of the amount of information needed to rate covered bonds," says Andrea Montanari, a director in UBS’s DCM department, who was previously responsible for covered bonds at Fitch Ratings. "Apart from the customary quarterly surveillance, agencies are in some cases trying to get information on an even tighter frequency."
In fairness, supplying the right information on a covered bond issue is a key factor in the deal’s success.
Investors are becoming more and more sensitive to the structure of covered bonds, especially in terms of the cover pools. With the dynamic nature...
