DePfa likes to think that as an issuer it is one step ahead of its competitors, and not without reason. With assets totalling Dm150 billion ($87 billion) on the balance sheet and a funding requirement which outstrips that of most other specialized German mortgage banks, DePfa has necessarily taken an innovative approach to its borrowings.
That much is evident from DePfa's contribution to the development of the Pfandbrief market, which is the most apparent area, but not the only one where the bank has taken a lead.
Few other issuers have devoted as much energy to internationalizing Pfandbriefe, although some banks question whether large-scale efforts to place the product outside Europe are justified by the rewards.
No such doubts exist at DePfa, whose global Pfandbrief shelf created earlier this year marked an intensification of the bank's pursuit of non-European as well as European investors, and a first for the market.
Paper issued under this facility will form the major component of DePfa's borrowings, which will total between Dm30 billion and Dm40 billion this year alone. In addition, the bank is a large issuer of unsecured debt.