Press release

The European Covered Bond Fact Book 2024, featuring the latest statistical data as of end 2023, builds upon the success of previous editions to cement its place as the definitive source of information in terms of market, regulatory and legislative developments, and statistical data on the covered bond asset class. The new Fact Book can be downloaded from the ECBC website here.

To complement the updated Fact Book’s publication, on Thursday, 12 September 2024 at 16h30 (CEST), a roundtable will take place during the Invisso/ECBC Covered Bond Congress in Porto, where a selection of the Fact Book’s authors will highlight some of the main findings and key themes from this year’s edition. This roundtable will be moderated by Mr Sascha Kullig, Chairman of the ECBC Fact Book Working Group. For more information on this event, click here.

Furthermore, as in recent years, the ECBC will also host a special virtual publication event on Friday, 20 September 2024 from 10h00-12h00 (CEST). More details on the organisation of this event and how to register will follow in due course.

This year’s Fact Book demonstrates that covered bonds continue to play a key role in European capital markets, contributing to the efficient allocation of capital, while supporting both economic development and the post-pandemic recovery. Indeed, the amount of outstanding covered bonds rose by EUR 230 bn to stand at over EUR 3.3 tn at the end of 2023. This was the sixth consecutive year of growth, and the pace of growth (+7.6%) was the strongest since 2008. Moreover, it was more than double the growth rate in 2022 (+3%), taking the volume of outstanding covered bonds further above the EUR 3trn mark. The EUR 689 bn of new issuance in 2023 evidences the ability of the asset class to provide essential access to long-term capital market funding. The consistently strong performance of covered bonds and their quality features attract the attention of regulators and market participants worldwide, which, in turn, leads to the increasing recognition of their macro-prudential value. Furthermore, covered bonds are fast becoming a key financial instrument to tackle the environmental challenges of our time and enable the green transition in many countries.

With regard to the covered bond market statistics for 2023, the ECBC is pleased to confirm that these are now available to download via the ECBC website and a short video introduction of the statistics by the Chairman of the ECBC Statistics & Data Working Group, Mr Joost Beaumont, can be found on our YouTube channel. The ECBC data covers market developments over the past 20 years for 36 different countries.

The ECBC welcomes the broad range of views expressed in this latest revision of the Fact Book and thanks all contributors whose enthusiasm and dedication have once again produced an outstanding publication. Particularly, we would like to express our gratitude to the Chairmen of the ECBC Fact Book and the ECBC Statistics & Data Working Groups, Mr Sascha Kullig and Mr Joost Beaumont, respectively.

Commenting on the publication of the 2024 Edition of the ECBC European Covered Bond Fact Book, EMF-ECBC Secretary General, Luca Bertalot, said:

“The ECBC continues to play a crucial and transformative role in these times of transition, offering unique market governance and guidance for market participants and, more importantly, a valuable, over-arching source of market intelligence with insights and statistics provided by the leading covered bond experts and covering all market perspectives. A global vision and local human touch have made from this forum a unique community which is securing long-term, sustainable funding channels for mortgages, public sector assets and potentially SMEs, supporting the real economy with smart, private sector financial solutions.”