Canada’s Caisse centrale Desjardins du Québec (CCDQ) is waiting until next week to move ahead with an inaugural euro legislative covered bond that it announced yesterday (Wednesday), with investors having asked for more time to prepare, according to syndicate officials at the leads.

The Canadian issuer yesterday announced the mandate for a five year covered bond, naming Barclays, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and DZ Bank as the bookrunners.

“The mandate was announced to put something out there and from that see what timeline works,” said a syndicate official at one of the leads.

Following the announcement CCDQ responded to investor feedback and decided to hold back on issuing this week, according to a banker at another of the leads.

“This was an honourable and fair decision,” he said. “Having only seen pool reports and documents yesterday, investors did not have time to prepare.”

The last Canadian covered bond to have hit the market was a Eu1bn five year for National Bank of Canada (NBC) in December. It was priced at 12bp over mid-swaps and an analyst this (Thursday) morning said it is trading at 7bp over. NBC yesterday announced a series of investor meetings (see below for more).

“However, CCDQ has a somewhat stronger credit quality,” he noted.

Caisse central Desjardins is rated Aa2/A+/AA-, also having a AA from DBRS. NBC is rated Aa3/A/A+, and carries a AA (low) rating from DBRS. Their covered bonds are each rated triple-A.

CCDQ is the treasurer for the Desjardins Group, the largest co-operative financial group in Canada. It has yet to issue covered bonds in euros, but has previously tapped the US market, its last such deal having been two years ago, however.

Canadian covered bond issuance had been on hold until last summer after dedicated covered bond legislation came into effect in the country in late 2012, with most issuers then having to set up new programmes to comply with the associated requirements. CCDQ’s legislative programme entered the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) registry at the end of January.

The issuer did not organise an official roadshow in the run-up to the mandate announcement, with the bank having instead held ad hoc meetings investors, said a lead syndicate banker.

CCDQ’s deal plans emerged after National Bank of Canada had earlier in the day announced that it has mandated BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, NBC Financial Markets and RBS to organise a roadshow, which started yesterday and ends Friday, to update investors on its programme.

The meetings are not deal-related, said a syndicate banker at one of the mandated banks. The issuer is meeting accounts it did not see when it roadshowed before selling its first legislative and euro covered bond in December.

A syndicate banker away from the leads said he does not expect NBC will launch an issue next week.

Benchmark covered bond issuance this week has been limited to an LBBW Eu500m 15 month public sector Pfandbrief and a BPCE SFH Eu500m tap, with a syndicate banker suggesting a drop in yields and “geopolitical” developments had contributed to the low level of issuance.

“But the market is still receptive and you could get a covered bond away,” he said.

There had been expectations that issuance this week would be hampered by the run-up to Karnival season in Germany and an industry conference in London in the latter half of the week, but the syndicate official said that these factors had been overplayed.

“I feel the conference’s relevance has been a bit exaggerated,” he added. “Limited issuance this week is more of a natural break following a number of deals in recent weeks.”