The Association of Swedish Covered Bond Issuers (ASCB) and the Pfandbrief & Covered Bond Forum Austria have welcomed an ICMA Covered Bond Investor Council transparency initiative in responses to a consultation on the proposed standards, but several national groupings have said they need more time to consider them.

Responses to the consultation were due by 30 June and a spokesperson for the CBIC said that the consultation had in general been received quite positively. The European Covered Bond Council – also speaking for some national associations – and European Central Bank are understood to be among those parties that have contributed to the consultation.

However, the Austrian association (Österreichisches Pfandbrief und Covered Bond Forum), which got back to the CBIC, said that it would need a couple more weeks to agree a common Austrian position, and other national associations are not yet in a position to respond.

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has not yet drafted a response, but plans to meet tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the CBIC consultation paper, according to an official at the association. The Covered Bond Report understands that the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp) has not yet formally submitted a response.

Sweden’s ASCB said in a submission dated 27 June that it welcomed the CBIC initiative and would recommend its members have common cover pool information set up “largely in line with your proposal”.

The association disagreed on several points it said were of a more “technical nature”. For example, the ASCB took issue with a suggestion that issuers should have to produce margin calculations, saying that these were not always available or appropriate. It also said that it did not see why breaking out covered bond funding into bearer and registered formats was necessary.

The Swedes noted that some data fields suggested by the CBIC were not relevant in their case as most Swedish issuers are specialised mortgage entities that do not conduct other business.

Despite saying that they would need more time, the Austrians said that they had already committed to standard reporting for all Austrian issuers, which is available quarterly. The Austrian association said they include additional fields suggested by the CBIC in the reporting template.

It added that having reporting standardised on a per country basis is “one of the possible ways to proceed” and that the association would support this approach.

The Swedish response can be found here.

The Austrian response is due to be uploaded on the association’s website here.