Covered bonds wake up to a new world

摘要

Not too long ago, industry insiders fondly referred to the covered bond as 'a sleeping beauty'. But in recent years, covered bonds have emerged as an important segment of privately issued bonds on Europe's capital markets. According to data from the European Mortgage Federation (EMF), the representative body of the European mortgage industry that represents the vast majority of covered bond issuers, there was more than EUD1500bn outstanding at the end of 2003. This account for about 16.5% of EU GDP and represents 17% of Europe's bond market.