The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) forms a new special interest group which will focus on representing the needs of investors in the covered bond market.
The new Covered Bond Investor Council (CBIC) is an investor driven organisation, independent of both issuers and the market, for which ICMA provides secretariat and administrative support services. Promoting the long term development of the European covered bond market and restoring confidence in the asset class are key objectives of the Council.
Membership of the Council is open to all investors in covered bonds including central banks/ sovereign wealth funds; investment management companies; insurance companies; pension funds; and money manager/ bank liquidity manager accounts both within Europe and in other markets.
Although recent disruption to the covered bond market has provoked industry-wide debate, investors in this asset class have not had a body to coordinate and express their views, unlike traders and issuers, says Claus Tofte Nielsen, chairman, CBIC.
The CBIC is being launched now with the immediate goal of assisting the resumption of a well functioning market in Europe and promoting investor interests to regulators and other organisations with an interest in the sector.
This is a vital asset class, where investor confidence is a key to its full recovery, says Robert Parker, vice chairman of Credit Suisse Asset Management, president of CBIC and chair of ICMAs Asset Management and Investors Council. The creation of the CBIC, we hope, will make a meaningful contribution to this recovery.
L.D.