Wojciech Zielonka of Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) has joined the Covered Bond Label Advisory Council after the Label was expanded beyond the EEA for 2015.

The Covered Bond Label Foundation today (Thursday) announced the appointment by CMHC of Zielonaka (pictured), senior vice president at the Canadian national housing agency, as its national authority representative. CMHC administers the legislative Canadian covered bond regime. The Label Advisory Council advises the Label Committee, which runs the Label initiative.

The Covered Bond Label has in 2015 been opened up to non-EEA issuers for the first time, a move first announced at a plenary of the ECBC in September.

“We very much welcome Mr Zielonka’s appointment to the Covered Bond Label Advisory Council as this will enrich the debate amongst global covered bond stakeholders at what is a crucial moment for the industry,” said Luca Bertalot, secretary general of the EMF-ECBC. “In this context, the Label highlights the capability of the covered bond market to converge in terms of market best practices and qualitative characteristics, supporting the macro-prudential recognition of the asset class in ongoing legislative debates at the global level.”

The full line-up of the Label Advisory Council is:

Observer representatives:

Lars Overby, head of unit – regulation, European Banking Authority

Ad Visser, head of the financial markets and collateral section in the European Central Bank’s market operations analysis division, ECB

National authority representatives:

François Haas, deputy general manager, DG Operations, Banque de France

Concha Jiménez, director of operations department, Banco de España

Michal Klestinec, senior portfolio manager, National Bank of Slovakia

Wojciech Zielonka, senior vice president, CMHC

Market representatives (based on a rotation principle):

Andreas Denger, senior portfolio manager at Meag Munich Ergo Asset Management GmbH

Hélène Heberlein, managing director, covered bonds, Fitch Ratings

Peter Voisey, partner, Clifford Chance

Photo: Dan Taylor