UBS opened US dollar benchmark covered bond issuance for 2012 yesterday, printing a $1.5bn (Eu1.16bn) three year transaction, but market participants were unsure about how encouraging its success might be for other European names.

Leads Barclays Capital, HSBC, RBS, Scotia and UBS built a book in excess of $1.8bn. After going out yesterday with a level of the mid-130s over mid-swaps, the leads set the final spread at 135bp over mid-swaps, equivalent to 168.5bp over Treasuries.

UBS announced its deal in the Asian time zone yesterday, before following through into Europe, and then into the US.

“I think it was a nice start for European names in dollars,” said a syndicate official at one of the leads.

He noted that there was not a lot of comparable paper, but said Credit Suisse and UBS trade around flat to each other. He put the new issue premium at about7bp-8bp.

A syndicate official away from the leads noted the euro equivalent was 49bp over mid-swaps.

“That is roughly in line with where UBS has been trading in euros,” he said, adding that the cost of European banks issuing in dollars had dropped to its lowest level since August.

“It’s definitely a good precedent for other issuers,” he said.

However, another was more sceptical about the implications of UBS’s success for other Europeans.

“It’s relatively good getting $1.5bn,” he said, “but it’s clearly something that is quite specific to the Swiss situation. Whether it opens up the dollar market to European names… I’m still a bit dubious.”

The US took 35% of UBS’s issue, the Nordics 40%, the UK 12%, Switzerland 11%, and others 2%. Fund managers took 34%, central banks 33%, banks 17%, insurance companies 6%, corporates 5%, and others 5%.