Niek Allon of the Netherlands’ NIBC will be the next deputy chairman of the European Covered Bond Council alongside incoming chairman Waleed El-Amir of UniCredit, after their appointments were confirmed on Tuesday.

ECBC deputy chairmen typically step up to the role of chairman after two years, the usual term of office for the industry body’s chairman.

El-Amir, head of group strategic funding and portfolio at UniCredit, became deputy chairman at the beginning of 2014 and his appointment as chairman from 1 January 2016 was formally confirmed on Tuesday. He will take over from incumbent Carsten Tirsbæk Madsen, chief executive officer of BRFkredit.

The appointment of Allon, associate director, structuring, at NIBC, as deputy chairman puts him next in line for the chairmanship of the industry body.

Announcing the appointment yesterday (Wednesday), Luca Bertalot, secretary general of the EMF-ECBC, noted that Allon had been involved in work on amendments to Dutch covered bond legislation that came into effect at the beginning of this year and which are the first to have taken into account European Banking Authority best practice guidelines that are considered a new regulatory benchmark for the asset class in the current harmonisation debate.

NIBC was also the first issuer, in October 2013, to issue a legislative conditional pass-through covered bond, while El-Amir’s UniCredit was the second.