Two further Singaporean issuers beyond OCBC could join DBS and UOB in the covered bond market in the next 18-24 months, according to DBS’s Colin Chen, who at an ECBC plenary on Thursday cited the benefits of convergence towards European standards for issuers from emerging covered bond markets.

DBS Bank sold the first Singaporean covered bond last July. Fellow Singaporean issuer United Overseas Bank (UOB) followed on 2 March, selling a Eu500m five year issue that was the first euro-denominated benchmark covered bond from an Asian issuer.

Speaking at the European Covered Bond Council plenary in Copenhagen, Colin Chen, managing director and head of structured debt solutions at DBS Bank, said a third Singaporean issuer could join the covered bond market this year.

“We are also hopeful that two more potential issuers from Singapore will join the market in the next 18 to 24 months,” he added.

Singaporean bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) recently confirmed that it is working on a covered bond programme.

At a steering committee meeting on Wednesday, Chen was confirmed as chairman of a new global issues working group of the ECBC.

He said DBS and other issuers in the emerging Singaporean covered bond market want to “to find ways to align ourselves in terms of transparency and harmonise ourselves in terms of convergence with what is traditionally accepted as the European covered bond in the traditional covered bond markets”, and that the working group’s agenda could reflect this.

Chen said that universal treatment of all covered bond issues, whether from issuers domiciled inside or outside Europe, could only be beneficial for issuers, and added that non-traditional or emerging covered bond countries could add depth and liquidity to the covered bond market.

“Can we be part of a bigger covered bond family?” he asked. “I think that is what the working group is meant to be doing, and trying to find a way to bring everybody to the same table and make sure that we protect the covered bond product as best as we can.”