Yield Factors of Additional Tier 1 Bonds

Additional Tier 1 bonds (AT1 bonds) are hybrid financial instruments issued by banks under Basel III. In case of a threat to the financial stability of an institution, these bonds can be converted into equity or written down to help the bank meet capital requirements. AT1 bonds are designed to insure a bank against a potential capital shortfall and minimize the need for a regulatory bail-out. AT1 bonds gained new attention after the collapse of Credit Suisse (CS), when all outstanding AT1 bonds issued by the bank were written down to zero. This paper provides an overview of AT1 capital, compares the main types of AT1 bonds and describes their most common features. In addition, it quantifies the risk premium in AT1 bond yields and identifies the main factors underlying this premium. The analysis is supported by real data on AT1 issuance in Europe. It is shown that in the primary market investors demand a significant premium from banks for the additional risk embedded in AT1 bonds. The size of the premium depends mostly on issuer-specific factors such as issuer’s credit risk, capital ratio, stock volatility and asset size. On the contrary, security design turns out to be a less important pricing factor. The author compares the results before and after the CS crash and concludes that the CS AT1 write-down did not directly affect the pricing principles in the market. The results of the research may be useful both for investors looking for yield pickup in financial sector and for banks working on the optimal design for their AT1 bonds.