Kookmin sells $1 bln five-year bond at 98.68

NEW YORK May 6 (Reuters) - South Korea's Kookmin Bank sold $1 billion worth of five-year covered bonds at a discounted price of 98.68 on Wednesday, bringing a yield of 7.572 percent, according to a market source familiar with the deal.

The coupon on the new issue, which matures May 14, 2014, is 7.25 percent and has a spread of 550 basis points over the corresponding benchmark U.S. Treasury.

This is the first-ever covered bond sale from Asia outside of Japan. Kookmin is a unit of KB Financial Group (105560.KS).

A covered bond is one that has other securities pledged as security against default.

Lead managers of the deal are Citigroup and HSBC. Kookmin's debt was rated 'AA' by Standard & Poor's, or three notches above the agency's 'A' rating for the lender. Moody's Investors Service assigned an 'Aa2' rating for the debt compared with its 'A2' rating for the bank. (Reporting by Daniel Bases)