Bank of Nova Scotia is kicking off benchmark covered bond issuance for October with a five year US dollar deal today (Monday), and with Hypo Vorarlberg and Sparebank Vest Boligkreditt having joined the euro pipeline, the primary market for the new month is picking up where September left off.

Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank, BNS) leads Scotiabank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche and HSBC opened books this morning with initial price thoughts of the mid-swaps plus 20bp area for the October 2026 US dollar covered bond, expected rating triple-A. After four hours and going into the US open, they reported books above US$1.5bn, excluding joint lead manager interest. Final pricing and sizing had not been decided as The CBR was going to press.

The last benchmark dollar covered bond was a US$2.5bn (€2.16bn, C$3.16bn) five year from Royal Bank of Canada, which was issued at plus 18bp on 7 September. Amid a busy month for Canadian covered bonds, BNS last month issued a £1.5bn five year FRN and a €1.5bn eight year benchmark.

Euro benchmark issuance is expected to resume tomorrow after a busy September that surprised many market participants and left analysts revising their forecasts (see separate article).

According to a mandate announcement today (Monday), Hypo Vorarlberg is planning a €500m no-grow eight year mortgage Pfandbrief, with Barclays, DekaBank, Erste, LBBW and UniCredit as joint leads. A lead banker said they are looking to execute the Austrian deal tomorrow.

He put fair value in the context of plus 3bp. According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, Hypo Vorarlberg July 2026s were quoted at plus 2bp, mid, and May 2027s at plus 3bp. Among recent covered bond issues, Bawag September 2029s were quoted at minus 1bp, and Hypo Noe September 2028s at plus 2bp.

Sparebanken Vest Boligkreditt is planning to issue the latest in a series of post-summer green covered bonds, a long five year euro benchmark. Barclays, Commerzbank, DZ, ING and Nordea have the Norwegian mandate.

According to pre-announcement comparables circulated by the leads, the issuer’s green June 2027s were quoted at plus 2.2bp, mid, and conventional February 2026s at plus 1.8bp. Sparebank Boligkreditt May 2026s were quoted at minus 1bp, DNB September 2026s at plus 0.5bp, and SR Bank green October 2026s at plus 1.5bp.