WaMu 'Covered Bonds' Issue Stirring Interest

Washington Mutual's first U.S. issuance last year of "covered bonds" has jump-started U.S. interest in the European security type in terms of purchases, if not sales, according to market participants at an investor meeting on the product March 6."The liquidity's there on the bid side," Bill Chepolis, managing director and portfolio manager at Deutsche Asset Management, told attendees at the Euromoney U.S. Covered Bond Investor Forum in New York. Since the euro-denominated WaMu deal, a number of European issuers have come to market with U.S. dollar-denominated "covered bond" transactions, said Dan Markaity, managing director of global public credit at Merrill Lynch.