Covered Bonds
Products and Services
WestLB is established as a regular issuer of Public Sector Covered Bonds in the international capital markets since many years. After the split of former Westdeutsche Landesbank into Landesbank NRW and WestLB in 2002 issuance of covered bond was continued through WestLB Covered Bond Bank under Irish legislation.
With the amendment to the German Pfandbrief legislation and the abolishment of the specialised banking principle WestLB also regained the possibility to issue under the German Pfandbrief Act. Since 2005 WestLB is issuing public sector covered bonds under the German Pfandbrief Act in the following formats:
- Benchmark Bonds
- Private Placements
- Registered Covered Bonds ("Namenspfandbriefe")
- Structured Covered Bonds
Security
Pfandbriefe are covered bonds. The assets serving as cover are loans to the public sector (for public sector Pfandbriefe) and mortgage loans (for mortgage bonds). The cover register of WestLB AG is managed according to the statutory requirements of the German Pfandbrief Act (PfandBG), which came into force on July 19, 2005.
Special Security Features
All WestLB Pfandbriefe are eligible for trusts (pursuant to § 1807 BGB) and as cover funds (pursuant to § 54 Section 3 VAG in conjunction with § 1 Section 1 No. 6 AnIV). As a rule, bearer Pfandbriefe are listed in the regular market of the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange and are eligible as security (category 1) for covering transactions with the European Central Bank (ECB).
