The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section II provides a description of
European mortgage covered bonds as well as the main features of the two largest jumbo
covered bond markets: Germany and Spain. Section III shows how to assess the credit risk of
mortgage covered bonds by analyzing their asset swap spreads. Section IV applies this
methodology to analyze the German and Spanish jumbo covered bond markets. Finally, in
Section V we conclude with some recommendations for other markets on the use of
mortgage covered bonds and their risk-mitigating features