The Covered Bond Report will be announcing the winners of its 2016 Awards for Excellence at a reception in Frankfurt on 8 June ahead of the Covered Bond Investor Conference, and to assist with our deliberations we would welcome nominations from market participants.

The awards reception will again be held at the restaurant MainNizza on the eve of the fifth annual conference we run jointly with the ICMA Covered Bond Investor Council, which takes place at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek on Thursday, 9 June – entry to both events is free. (See here for more details.)

The aim of the awards is to recognise those deals, institutions and ideas that have been best in class or contributed to the development of covered bonds over the past year (starting from mid-April 2015).

As previously, and to ensure that we have the flexibility to reward those deserving of recognition, we are only proposing loose categories suggesting the types of nominations we would like to receive, along with examples of possible sub-categories:

• Issuer: issuance, transparency, investor relations

• Lead manager: euros, dollars and other

• New issue: euros, dollars and other

• Innovation

The categories we designated last year and the respective winners can be found by clicking through here.

Last year we bestowed more awards for issuer categories than the previous year, when we highlighted more deals, and we will again this year determine the categories based on what issues or institutions we consider the most deserving.

We don’t want to end up simply rewarding the best of an ordinary or limited bunch by setting in stone a niche currency award, for example, while greater achievements are left unrecognised simply because they happen to be in a more competitive market like euros. At the same time, we would be happy to uncover any institution or deal deserving of an award but which might otherwise be ignored simply because it is from a less glamorous or well known sector.

We could also add awards recognising excellence in research or ratings, for instance, if convinced of a deserving recipient.

So please let us have your thoughts – whether putting forward yourselves and your deals or others – via e-mail or a phone call. Has a particular issuer pulled a rabbit out of the hat with a spectacular comeback? Has a bank broken new ground with an innovative deal? Or is there an unsung hero in a niche market that deserves to be recognised?

We already have several candidates in mind and over the next couple of weeks will be engaging with a broad cross-section of market participants to discuss the merits of nominees. However, the ultimate winners will be decided by The Covered Bond Report.

Please contact managing editor Neil Day with your nominations or any questions: nday@coveredbondreport.com or on +44 20 3269 2058.