Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) has become the first issuer to disclose its information under the Covered Bond Label harmonised transparency template (HTT), in a move the Covered Bond Label Foundation described as “a first concrete step” towards a more harmonised market.

The HTT, a system to disclose cover pool information in a standardised way from all covered bond jurisdictions, was introduced from the 1 January onwards, with a phase-in period of one year. Under the requirements of the 2016 Covered Bond Label Convention, all issuers under the Covered Bond Label will have to publish the HTT.

“The Covered Bond Label is a global market benchmark enhancing convergence and transparency,” said Luca Bertalot, EMF-ECBC secretary general and Covered Bond Label Foundation administrator. “It also facilitates a clear definition of the qualitative and quantitative parameters of covered bonds in the Basel debate.

“The publication of the first non-EEA covered bond label HTT is a testimony to the global success of the Covered Bond Label.”

The Covered Bond Label Foundation said UOB’s publication of the HTT not only adds a new issuer and programme to the Label initiative, which currently stands at 75 issuers, “but is also a first concrete step towards a more harmonised covered bond market”.

UOB is next week holding a series of European investor meetings ahead of an expected debut covered bond.