20 December 2022
| Dear Friends,
With the approaching of the festive season, we would like to share with you a warm message of friendship and best wishes for a happy new year to you and your families.
Since the dawn of time, the celebration of the winter solstice has been a magical, ancestral moment for all cultures and religions living in the northern hemisphere. The cyclical return of the light and the overcoming of darkness recalls the cathartic significance of the birth of a new life and rebirth, giving hope to humanity for a better world for future generations. The concept of hope for a better future is the bedrock of our societies and our economic and political paradigms. Unfortunately, the destiny of human kind is to continuously fight for a better future; we cannot relax or take any achievement for granted. Now, it is our turn to wage this ancestral battle of survival.
We belong to a fortunate generation which has been educated and trained in the spirit of international cooperation. Being different is seen as an element of enrichment; dialogue and understanding of the opinions of others are the basis to face challenges and find compromises. In a world where there is no right and no wrong, finding the right balance is a delicate exercise which requires the courage to change views and the ability to accept the needs of others as if they were our own. In our opinion, those are the secret ingredients needed to pave the way for a successful project of peace and prosperity, where there are no borders and no strangers but only shared values and good ideas which will allows us to walk together towards a common future.
At the EMF-ECBC, we sincerely believe that we have a special mission to share a new culture of cooperation aimed at developing a market infrastructure which can help millions of families to build a better sustainable future. We also believe that we are an essential and integral part of the democratic process, in which we bring the expertise and experience of the market to policymakers in the pursuit of better regulation which is balanced and attuned to the needs of consumer and market players.
We have made significant achievements this year and finally got the chance to see so many of you in person in London, Copenhagen, Vienna, Venice, Amsterdam and of course Brussels, to name but a few.
We have built a new Covered Bond Label website, which serves as a genuine market ‘lighthouse’, supporting a smooth transition towards a post-Directive world. We have launched the Energy Efficient Mortgage Label and the Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative Home Ecosystems to guide consumers, lenders and investors toward a more sustainable housing market
Allow us to share with you what we have already in mind for next year:
Those are only few appetisers we have a dense pipeline of activities trainings and meetings for you.
We really hope to see you soon next year we are keen on discussing new ideas and getting your views.
Never like now we need your energy and your strength to shape a new market paradigm and a new sustainable regulatory framework able to transform challenges in opportunities for all.
Ad maiora Luca Bertalot Secretary General |
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 interested stakeholders.
