The awards reflected the judgment of 740 market participants, including over 350 investors with over €300bn in covered bonds assets under management.
HSBC took the prize for global covered bond house of the year, reflecting its leading share of the market in the last 12 months, receiving a strong endorsement from issuers.
With a vote that was almost double that achieved by the runner up, Crédit Agricole clinched best euro lead manager of the year prize, an outcome that also tallied with its leading market share in euros.
Commerzbank narrowly pipped the French bank to the best syndicate manager, a result investors influenced held sway over, with issuers favouring UBS in this category.
Barclays easily swept aside all competition with almost half the overall vote, with both investors and issuers holding it in high regard, to win best structuring and asset liability management bank.
The award for best liquidity provider — with liquidity a rare thing these days — was hotly contested. Many smaller investors thought highly of Santander while Société Générale had the issuers’ vote. But neither of these won. The bank that polled most strongly, and one that has consistently been a top player for many years, was BNP Paribas.
The award for best distribution was a two horse race between Barclays, which won over issuers, and LBBW, which was propelled forward by investors. Both banks took nearly two thirds of the entire vote between them, leaving them almost level, but LBBW came through.
Royal Bank of Canada, which launched several deals across a range of currencies, won global issuer of the year. The Canadian bank trailed Crédit Agricole among investors but its much stronger support among lead managers settled it.
Caffil, the leading issuer by volume and number of deals, picked-up the award for best euro issuer of the year and, with an astounding validation from dealers, ABN Amro’s €2.25bn April 2031 won the award for best global deal.
This year saw many inaugural transactions from issuers in new and established jurisdictions and there were plenty of other worthy contenders that never even made the short list. But the eventual winner over all was also the year’s highest yielding deal, bridging emerging markets and covered bonds: Vakifbank’s 2.375% May 2021s.
