Bank of Ireland registered €1.9 billion of notes from its mortgage-covered securities program on the stock exchange, to maintain levels of eligible collateral for European Central Bank loans.
The bank listed €700 million of notes, which mature in February 2014, €600 million of five-year notes and €600 million of seven-year notes, company filings showed.
Bank of Ireland "has undertaken a simple exercise to maintain ECB eligibility of their mortgage assets," said Cathal O'Leary, head of fixed-income sales at NCB Stockbrokers, who said the company swapped loans in its mortgage-backed promissory note program over to its covered bond program. "This is not new to Ireland as other banks in the jurisdiction have had to do the same thing when they were downgraded."
Bloomberg