In Europe, Westpac sold €1.0 billion of seven year covered bonds late last week. While covered bonds issued by the major Australian banks are not eligible for repo-transactions with the European Central Bank, they still attract strong demand from investors looking for diversification.Westpac's issue attracted orders totalling €1.4 billion against an indicative credit spread range of 28-30 basis points over mid-swaps. The deal was priced at 26 bps over.The pricing is said to offer a new issue premium of two to three bps over a small issue of five year covered bonds made by the bank last month.        Meanwhile NAB subsidiary Clydesdale Bank sold close to $1 billion of mortgage-backed bonds. The bank paid 40 bps more than the euro interbank offered rate on €300 million of notes and 50 bps over Libor for £350 million of securities.