Commerzbank is pricing a Eu1bn five year mortgage Pfandbrief today (Monday) at 5bp through mid-swaps, the first time the German bank has issued a jumbo covered bond in its own name and the first Pfandbrief benchmark of Eu1bn or greater from Germany since February.

The mandate for the new issue was announced on Friday and leads BayernLB, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and HSBC went out with initial price thoughts of the low single-digits through mid-swaps this morning. They then revised guidance to the 4bp through area, before fixing the pricing at 5bp through and the size at Eu1bn on the back of an order book of around Eu1.5bn, according to syndicate officials away from the leads.

One described the outcome as “a great deal”, adding that it was a long since a jumbo had been seen from Germany. The last Eu1bn or great covered bond from Germany was a Eu1bn five year from Helaba in February.

The new issue is also the first Eu1bn or greater transaction from Commerzbank in its own name, although subsidiary Frankfurter Hypothekenbank did issue jumbos in its former guise of Eurohypo.

Another syndicate official said that the pricing put the issue a little inside Commerzbank’s secondary curve, given that he had seen fair value at around 2bp through mid-swaps.

“That’s in line with all the recent issuance,” he added.

Another banker said that the pricing looked like a good result for Commerzbank given where its secondaries were trading — a 2020 at mid-swaps flat, mid, on Friday morning, for example, indicating 1bp through fair value – and that it is “not a top tier name” like MünchenerHyp, for example. However, he said that relative to what French issuers Caffil and CFF had achieved two weeks ago the spread did not look so impressive. He said that their two deals were now quoted at minus 5bp for Caffil and minus 7bp for CFF, on a mid-mid basis.

“It’s OK,” he said, “but not amazing.”

Little benchmark covered bond activity is expected over the course of the week, with nothing having been officially announced for this week and many market participants heading to Vienna for a covered bond conference.