The Covered Bond Label Foundation granted its first non-European Economic Area (EEA) Label today (Monday) to DBS Bank, with the announcement coming as the Singaporean issuer is on a roadshow to promote a new covered bond programme ahead of an anticipated first issue from the country.

The Label was opened to non-EEA issuers on 1 January, after the Label Committee in September 2014 announced the decision to allow to be Label-eligible non-EEA covered bonds that are compliant with the requirements of the 2015 Covered Bond Label Convention.

The foundation said the granting of the first non-EEA Label is a positive step for the market and especially for global investors, who will be able to perform due diligence activities more easily and obtain issuer data ranging from asset and liability side information to legislative details from different countries in a more comparable way.

“The application by a non-EEA covered bond programme for the Covered Bond Label represents a significant achievement in terms of global convergence of market best practices, as well as in terms of enhancing transparency in the covered bond space,” said Luca Bertalot, secretary general of the EMF-ECBC.

“In addition, this reinforces the significance of the covered bond asset class in the global Basel Committee debate.”

DBS Bank, which is expected to launch Singapore’s inaugural covered bond from the $10bn (Eu8.94bn, SGD13.5bn) programme, is on a global roadshow taking in Singapore, Hong Kong, the US and Europe until Friday.