Well-attended covered bond conference in Budapest

On 10 and 11 October 2024, the covered bond community looked to Budapest, where the 26th Central European Covered Bond Conference (CECBC) took place.

Around 80 covered bond specialists from across Europe, including analysts and representatives from banks, rating agencies and supervisory authorities, attended the event. The aim of the annual CECBC is to enable a small group of experts to exchange views on fundamental aspects of covered bond legislation and supervisory issues. This year’s event was organised by the vdp in cooperation with the Hungarian Banking Association and the National Bank of Hungary.

The following current topics were discussed in four different panels:

• CBD Call for Advice (chaired by Sascha Kullig, Member of the vdp Management Board): The results of the harmonisation to date were explained, along with the question of whether further harmonisation steps are necessary for covered bonds.
• Green Covered Bonds / ESG (chaired by Gyula Nagy, MHB Mortgage Bank, Budapest). Here, too, the main topic was the EU regulation, in particular the question of what is ‘green’. There was agreement that, for example, there are different needs in the various member states, for example, when it comes to building renovations.
• Cross Border Cover Assets (chaired by Viktor Juhász, Unicredit Bank Budapest, and Dr Tim Lassen, Member of the vdp Management Board). Here it became clear that there is great interest in smaller markets in expanding the basis for covered bonds through foreign cover business. The various legal and regulatory obstacles were discussed.
• Property Value (chaired by Annett Wünsche, Member of the vdp Management Board) on various national approaches to implementing Property Value and on the (possible) impact on the Pfandbrief.

The next CECBC – which will be the 27th event of its kind – is expected to take place in Berlin at the beginning of November 2025. The vdp has already started preparations.