About ECBC
The European Covered Bond Council
The European Covered Bond Council (ECBC) is the platform that brings together covered bond market participants including covered bond issuers, analysts, investment bankers, rating agencies and a wide range of other interested stakeholders.
The Council currently has over 120 members across more than 30 active covered bond jurisdictions globally and many different market segments. ECBC members represent over 95% of covered bonds outstanding, which were worth over €3.3 trillion at the end of 2024.
The purpose of the ECBC is to represent and promote the interests of covered bond market participants at the international level. The ECBC’s main objective is to be the point of reference for matters regarding the covered bond industry and operate as a think-tank, as well as a lobbying and networking platform for covered bond market participants.
Mission statement
“Promoting the covered bond asset class as a key funding instrument enabling mortgage lenders to grant housing loans.”
Organisation
The ECBC Plenary Meeting is a bi-annual discussion forum where all ECBC members together with invited guests and regulators convene to discuss core issues and to establish strong networking links.
The ECBC Chairman is nominated from amongst the members of the ECBC Steering Committee for a term of two years. The ECBC Chairman represents the ECBC in external events.
Graduated from Rome University in Economics, Stefano Patruno started his career with Crédit Agricole in Paris Head Office, dealing with the foreign subsidiaries of the group. He subsequently joined Intesa Sanpaolo where he worked for Planning, CIB and Treasury. In the latter position he was involved in structuring proprietary securitisations and covered bonds, heading the management of all the CB programmes of Intesa Sanpaolo. Eventually he took responsibility of Supranational and Intragroup Funding.
Stefano spent recent years in Brussels, as Head of the European Regulatory Policy, entrusted with the analysis and advocacy on the EU banking and financial markets legislative files, e.g. prudential, crisis management, securitisation, covered bonds, retail and financial markets. He has been recently appointed as Head of Incoming Regulation Impact Assessment, contributing to the activities of the Institutional Affairs Department of Intesa Sanpaolo.
He has been participating for a number of years to the various working groups of the European Covered Bond Council – notably he is the Moderator of the European Secured Notes (ESN) Task Force and represents the Italian Banking Association in the ECBC Steering Committee. In 2022 Stefano was appointed Deputy Chairman of the ECBC and, in 2024 Chairman of the ECBC. Representing Intesa Sanpaolo, he also participates to the working groups of other EU banking associations.
The ECBC Steering Committee, headed by the ECBC Chairman, and composed of representatives from the major covered bond issuing jurisdictions in the EU and other industry experts, is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of the ECBC. The Committee convenes once every quarter and addresses strategy-related questions. Furthermore, it coordinates the agenda of the various ECBC working groups (see below).
The ECBC working groups convene to tackle specific technical issues. Participation in the working groups depends on expertise required and is open to both named ECBC delegates and other specialists from ECBC member institutions in the required area. Currently, the ECBC has established seven Working Groups.
The ECBC also establishes, on an ad hoc basis, Tasks Forces to address specific standalone issues. Six ECBC Task Forces are currently constituted and are focused on the subjects of Implementation of the Covered Bond Directive, European Secured Notes (ESNs), Investors, ESG Bonds, Transparency, Supervision and Swaps.
Working Groups
EU Legislation
The EU Legislation Working Group takes care of monitoring and lobbying on prudential, macroprudential and supervision files which have an impact on the covered bond industry at a European and national levels. In the past the Group has successfully lobbied at EU level to obtain special treatment for covered bonds. As well as monitoring and lobbying on the CRD IV/CRR, the European Legislation Working Group is actively working on issues such as Solvency II, OTC derivatives and the Implementation of Basel III.
Chairman: Mr Frank Will, HSBC
Technical Issues
The ECBC Technical Issues Working Group (TI WG) tackles subjects relating to covered bonds such as the use and treatment of derivatives in the cover pool, bankruptcy remoteness and latest market developments. The Working Group manages and updates a database which provides an overview of covered bond frameworks across the EU and enables their features to be compared (this is accessible at www.ecbc.eu).
Chairman: Mr Agustin Martin Calmarza, BBVA
Statistics and data
The Statistics and Data Working Group is responsible for collecting and publishing complete and up-to-date information on issuing activities and volumes outstanding of covered bonds in the various European market segments.
Chairman: Mr Joost Beaumont, ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
Market Related Issues
The Market Related Issues Working Group discusses topics such as the EU trading rules and conventions on trading standards and the market-making process. This Working Group is currently leading discussions on improving liquidity in secondary markets and, in the context of the MiFID review, on the issues of pre- and post-trade price transparency.
Chairman: Mr Steffen Dahmer, JP Morgan and moderator of the ECBC Liquidity Task Force
Covered Bond Fact Book
The Covered Bond Fact Book Working Group is responsible for overseeing the publication of the annual ECBC Covered Bond Fact Book. This publication covers market developments, legislative frameworks in different countries as well as statistics on the asset class.
Chairman: Mr Sascha Kullig, vDP
Rating Agency Approaches
This Working Group examines rating approaches applied by credit rating agencies for covered bonds and, when necessary, convenes meetings with representatives of the rating agencies to facilitate the exchange of views.
Chairwoman: Ms Elena Bortolotti, Barclays
The Global Issues Working Group (GI WG) was established in 2016 and focuses exclusively on covered bond issues from a global perspective.
Chairman position: Currently vacant.