About Us

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. The ECBC represents over 95% of covered bond issuers in the EU.

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.”

Established in 1967, the European Mortgage Federation (EMF) is the voice of the European mortgage industry on the retail side of the business, representing the interests of mortgage lenders at European level.

Plenary

Ecbc chairman

Steering Committee

Working Groups

Secretariat

Plenary

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.

Ecbc chairman

The ECBC Chairman for the mandate 2022-2023 is Mr Morten Baekmand Nielsen from Nykredit.

Steering Committee

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). For a full list of Steering Committee members please click here.

Working Groups

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.

Chairman

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.

Morten Bækmand Nielsen is Head of Asset Liability Management & Investor Relations at Danish mortgage bank, Nykredit.

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and has attended courses at London Business School and the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton.

Morten has spent most of his career in Nykredit, though he started out as a trainee at Nordea before moving to Nykredit’s Group Treasury as a fixed income portfolio manager. He later worked in fixed income research in Nykredit Markets and helped develop the bank’s lending franchise outside Denmark.

Subsequently, he was responsible for a number of regulatory project including the implementation of the CRD in relation to covered bonds. After returning to Group Treasury, he took over the responsibility for mortgage product development and investor relations, and continued to be involved in regulatory issues including changes to the Danish covered bond legislation.

For the past decade the focus of Morten’s work has been investor relations and regulatory affairs. He took up his current position in 2021.

He has represented the Danish covered bond issuers in the ECBC’s Steering Committee since 2017 and has also previously served as chairman of the organisation’s Technical Issues Working Group.

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. The latest edition of the Fact Book can be accessed here .

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

GLOBAL ISSUES

The Global Issues Working Group (GI WG) was established in 2016 and focuses exclusively on covered bond issues from a global perspective.

chairman: MR COLIN CHEN, DBS BANK AND ASSOCIATION OF BANKS IN SINGAPORE (ABS)

Recruitment

VACANCIES AT EMF-ECBC

(please find all of the details on the “Recruitment” page - link at foot of this page)