By:

Vineet Bhansali

Roll No. 783 (VII Semester)

BOND MARKET IN FRANCE

The bond market (also known as the credit, or fixed income market) is a financial market where participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt securities, known as the Secondary market, usually in the form of bonds.

The primary goal of the bond market is to provide a mechanism for long term funding of public and private expenditures.

Traditionally, the bond market was largely dominated by the United States, but today the US is about 44% of the market. As of 2009, the size of the worldwide bond market (total debt outstanding) is an estimated $82.2 trillion.

What is a BOND MARKET??

The French covered bond market is the fourth-largest in the world, with more than €360 billion outstanding in 2012. Last year, French issuance of benchmark size (that is, with a notional of at least €500 million) placed with investors totaled more than €25 billion—the most of any country.

Despite the global issuance slowdown in 2013, covered bonds remain a key funding tool for French lenders, allowing them to diversify their funding mix and strengthen their funding profiles.

Buyers in Asia and the Middle East were responsible for half of net purchases of French government bonds in 2012, with total non-resident holders of French debt reaching 62 percent.

Introduction

Institutional investorsGovernmentsTradersIndividualsBecause of the specificity of individual bond

issues, and the lack of liquidity in many smaller issues, the majority of outstanding bonds are held by institutions like pension funds, banks and mutual funds.

Bond Market Participants

1. Caisse de Refinancement de l'Habitat (CRH) bonds

2. Obligations foncières (OF) 3. Structured covered bonds4. Obligations de Financement de l'Habitat

(OFH)5. Fonds Commun de Titrisation (FCT)

Five different frameworks for issuing covered bonds in France

Caisse de Refinancement de l'Habitat (CRH), a type of credit institution that is governed by a specific law, was the first entity to issue covered bonds in the current format. It was founded in 1985 exclusively to refinance banks' housing loans. Originally backed by an explicit state guarantee, CRH is now a private corporation whose shareholding banks—Crédit Agricole S.A., Crédit Mutuel, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, and BPCE—may contribute covered bond collateral and issue CRH bonds in proportion to their ownership.

Eligible assets are limited to residential mortgage loans, state-guaranteed home loans, and third-party-guaranteed home loans up to 35% of the collateral pool. Securitizations are not allowed in the asset pool.

1. Caisse de Refinancement de l'Habitat (CRH) bonds

In 1999, new legislation broadened asset eligibility for legislation-enabled covered bonds, allowing for the issuance of "Obligations Foncières" (OF) by Sociétés de Crédit Foncier (SCF), a new type of credit institution.

OF collateral may include mortgage and public-sector loans, some highly rated asset-backed securities (ABS) backed by eligible assets, state-guaranteed real estate loans, along with a limited amount of third-party guaranteed home loans.

2. Obligations foncières (OF).

Despite the existence of these two legislative covered bond frameworks, starting in the mid-2000s many domestic banks opted to issue under common law contractual agreements (so-called "structured“ covered bonds). A major reason for this was that French lenders had increased their exposure to third-party-guaranteed residential real estate loans.

Guaranteed lending rose to 53% in 2012 from 36% of volumes in 2001, according to Observatoire Crédit Logement/CSA. Many would therefore have had difficulty refinancing their loan books through OF or CRH, because of the cap on such assets. For OF, this cap was 20% until 2007, when it was raised to 35%.

Furthermore, while assets remain on the balance sheet of the originator when issuing CRH bonds, OF legislation requires assets to be transferred to the SCF that issues the bonds—a requirement that some lenders considered onerous.

3. Structured covered bonds

The French government introduced a new legislative framework in early 2011, and another type of credit institution—"Société de Financement de l'Habitat“ (SFH)—which could issue "Obligations de Financement de l'Habitat" (OFH). OFH can be backed by residential mortgages and guaranteed home loans without limit, along with some senior ABS. Under this legislative framework, the cover pool can also remain on the balance sheet of the sponsor bank, while the OFH are liabilities of the SFH.

SFHs with assets and liabilities on the same balance sheet are possible, but to our knowledge none currently exists. The legislation enabled structured covered bond issuers to convert their programs to OFH. Most of the issuers that we rate have done so, in order to achieve favorable regulatory treatment through compliance with Article 129 of the

European Capital Requirements Regulation, and with Article 52 (4) of the European directive on undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS).

4. Obligations de Financement de l'Habitat (OFH)

The last type of structure existing today uses a "Fonds Commun de Titrisation“ (FCT), a special-purpose company established under French securitization legislation. In this case, the issuer is not regulated as a covered bonds issuer.

The issuer's assets include financial receivables resulting from the parent group's advances. The advances match the terms and conditions of the covered bonds to ensure full and timely payment under the covered bonds, which are secured by French housing loans originated by a bank.

As with OFH, this type of structure makes use of the implementation of the European financial collateral directive in French law (Article L. 211-38 of the French Code Monétaire et Financier).

5. Fonds Commun de Titrisation (FCT)

Bond markets determine the price in terms of yield that a borrower must pay in order to receive funding. The decorrelation between French bond yields and France's economic fundamentals could go on as long as investor sentiment towards the country remains relatively positive.

The advantages of France's deep and liquid bond market - it makes it easy to buy or sell, and its appeal as a safe credit offer higher yields on its bonds than the United States, Germany or Japan.

Some structured covered bond programs, as well as bonds issued under some covered bond legislations, incorporate a feature that proportionally allocates the program's credit enhancement to each of the covered bond issues. In some programs this is referred to as the selected assets required amount (SARA) clause. Most of the structured and formerly structured French covered bond programs that we rate feature a SARA clause.

Bond Market Influence on Key Subjects

Propose harmonization and calculation standards for the Euro fixed income and derivatives instruments.

Carry out studies on those instruments and markets.Issue recommendations in this domain for all kinds

of entities involved in fixed income instruments, such as Issuers, Intermediaries, Financial Institutions, Investors, Professional Associations, Market Authorities.

It is a non-for-profit organization, that is driven by the objective of proposing very precise standards that contribute to the transparency and the safety of the Euro fixed income market.

Mission of the French Bond Association

Thank You