The Pfandbrief 2011 | 2012

Roundtable Pfandbrief Banks
For instance, issuers could provide information on currency shares, on the share of fixed- and
variable-rate loans, or on the percentage of a cover pool accounted for by the five or 10 largest
borrowers.
HB: The uniform presentation of, say, substitute cover should be possible without any great
difficulty. The vdp working group has already made gratifying progress in this respect.
10.
The financial market crisis prompted investors to give preference to domestic
bonds over bonds of other countries. What is your impression of investor
behavior at present? How strong is foreign investors’ interest in the Pfandbrief?
TS: Since the financial market crisis, investors have taken an extremely close look at the individual
issuers, examining thoroughly the underlying business models and making a detailed
analysis of balance sheets. On the whole, foreign investors’ interest in the Pfandbrief has
grown throughout the course of the financial market crisis because they have confidence in the
quality of our product. On the other hand, German investors seeking higher returns have again
featured more strongly in the order books for foreign covered bond issues of late. Here, less
attention is paid to the risk aspects that result from softer legal requirements.
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RG: For more than a year now we have seen a steady rise in foreign investors – in both former
and new investors. However, the interest shown by foreign investors is limited almost exclusively
to Jumbo-format issues.
11.
What investors want most of all is for extensive information to be provided quickly.
How can investor relations improve in future?
BW: In almost all of Europe, one can in the meantime find covered bond legislations or covered
bonds which are issued on the basis of contractual agreements. There is hardly a major
European bank today which is not a covered bond issuer. Competition has grown, and good
investor relations work has to show investors that it makes sense to invest in the issues of that
particular bank. Issuing banks which are not prepared to visit investors and address their questions
will fall behind in the competition for investors, or they will only be able to operate in
niche markets. Where investor relations can do more depends on what the individual issuers
are already doing in IR.
HB: Generally speaking, some information could be provided faster and more frequently. In the
end, every bank seeking to place capital market instruments has to comply with the best practice
standards of leading listed banks.