Finance Finland (FFI)
has joined the European Covered Bond Council (ECBC), a platform that brings
together covered bond issuers and their stakeholders.
Covered bonds are debt instruments secured by a cover pool of mortgage loans (property as collateral) or, in some countries, public-sector debt or other collateral security. For Finnish credit institutions, covered bonds are an important and affordable form of funding. At the end of 2017, the Finnish covered bond portfolio was worth €35 billion. The other Nordic countries also have large markets: combined, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland make up for 31% of the global market.
Finland received a warm welcome from Luca Bertalot, secretary general at the ECBC.
“We are delighted to welcome Finance Finland on board and look forward to their valuable contribution to our activities. For the ECBC, expanding its membership base into Finland is a sign of the positive development of the country’s covered bond market and recognition of the added value our work brings to the global covered bond community.”
Piia-Noora Kauppi, CEO at FFI, was equally happy about the membership.
“We are pleased to become a member of the ECBC and are looking forward to contributing to the work of making the European covered bond market even better. In the light of the upcoming CB legislative framework, we see ECBC membership as being especially important. We welcome the EU’s harmonisation efforts and the principle-based approach, which is vital to preserve our well-functioning market and safeguard existing good practices. We value the work the ECBC is doing in this important field and want to be part of it.”
The FFI member organisations include eight issuers of covered bonds. With the addition of FFI, the ECBC now represents 123 companies from more than 30 countries.