The European covered bond craze spread to the Netherlands yesterday as strong demand for the first Dutch deal, a €2bn ($2.5bn) bond issued and led by ABN Amro, fuelled what bankers called one of the fastest bookbuildings in recent history.

The deal attracted orders worth €4bn within three hours of the start of bookbuilding on Monday, and by the time the deal was priced yesterday bankers said demand was higher than €5bn, which enabled them to tighten the pricing.