This section provides an assessment of the
impact of the CBPP on the yields of covered
bonds. The reaction of most European covered
bond markets to the announcement of the
CBPP was noticeable, and appears to have
initiated a declining trend in covered bond
yield spreads. The comparison of covered
bond yields with a risk-free benchmark
shows that German covered bond spreads
even declined below zero for a time, but now
stand at around the levels observed in late
2007. French covered bond spreads seem to
have stabilised at the level of approximately
30-50 basis points higher than their pre-Lehman
values, while spreads in other countries
signifi cantly widened again during the recent
sovereign debt crisis. A regression analysis,
controlling for the overall developments in the
covered bond markets, shows that the CBPP
resulted in an average spread tightening by
about 12 basis points at the euro area level,
although this effect differed signifi cantly
across countries. Overall, the results suggest
that the CBPP had a noticeable impact on
euro area covered bond secondary markets.
While the German covered bond market had
already started recovering by early 2009, the
announcement of the CBPP seems to have been
an important stimulus to the recovery of other
covered bond markets.