Spreads between covered bonds and sovereign / agency / supra debt have been driven to a large extent by
the QE programmes of the Eurosystem. When the first round of QE started in October 2014, the ECB only
included covered bonds and ABS in the scope of eligible purchases. This led to a substantial tightening of
spreads between covered bonds and public sector debt up until mid-January 2015. When the Eurosystem finally
announced the expansion of QE to public sector debt, the differences widened again until March 2015. The
substantial rates volatility in April / May 2015 then drove them to historic tight levels again.