Clifford Chance (CC) and Mayer Brown have taken the lead roles on the first-ever covered bond programme in Latin America – a $500m (£312m) scheme kicked off by a $200m (£124m) five-year offering.

The offering by Panama-based Global Bank saw Deutsche Bank act as arranger alongside Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon as note trustee and HSBC's Panama arm as guaranty trustee, all of which were advised by CC.

Deutsche Bank worked with a CC team led by London-based banking and finance partner Peter Voisey and New York capital markets partners Lewis Cohen and Jonathan Zonis.

Banking partner Esther Cavett provided English law advice for BNY Mellon, while CC advised HSBC with a team led by London-based banking and finance partner Bruce Kahl. Panamanian firm Morgan & Morgan assisted on local law.

A team from Mayer Brown's New York office headed up by structured finance partner Chris Gavin acted for Global Bank alongside Panamanian firm Arias Fabrega & Fabrega. 

Voisey commented: "This was a challenging transaction, but a very pleasing one for our team to work on. Our team included lawyers in London and New York, given the Rule 144A placement and requisite diligence requirements. 

"The structure comprises elements of a traditional UK-structured covered bond but using a local Panamanian law guaranty trust structure. It is always interesting to work on a first issue in a new market and we hope to see further issuance in Panama and elsewhere in the region."

Global Bank's covered bonds were rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB by Standard & Poor's.