The Covered Bond Report will over the coming week decide who will be the winners of our inaugural Awards for Excellence, as announced in January. If you would like to propose a deal or institution, then please contact us with your nominations and any supporting information.

As previously explained, the recipients of our awards will be chosen by The Covered Bond Report following consultation with market participants. We have already begun discussing potential winners and would welcome your suggestions – whether nominating yourselves or other candidates. We would very much appreciate your input by the end of this week – this is not a hard cut-off date, but the earlier you get your nominations in, the better we will be able to evaluate them.

Awards will be given in recognition of excellence in the following categories:

• Issuance strategy

• Lead Manager (euros, dollars and other)

• New Issue (euros, dollars and other)

• Innovation

• Investor relations

• Research

• Regulation

• Legal advisory

We believe the categories should be self-explanatory, although it might be worth expanding on two of them.

Investor Relations: here we are looking for issuers who, through an individual action or over the course of the year, have acted in an investor-friendly manner, for example through transparency initiatives, liability management, or other non-issuance activities.

Regulation: in this category we are considering recognising a regulatory body for its approach to covered bonds.

In the categories of Lead Manager and New Issue we expect to announce separate winners for euros and dollars, but may also announce an “other” winner if we receive a sufficiently strong case. We also reserve the right to drop or add categories generally depending on the strength of representations.

As well as announcing the winners of the awards in each category, we will also be recognising deals and institutions in certain categories through “highly commended” accolades. We will announce the winners in early May.

Please contact Neil Day with your nominations on +44 20 7428 9575 or nday@coveredbondreport.com, along with any questions about the process.

See here for the original announcement of the awards.