U.S. Covered Bond Council

Mission Statement

The U.S. Covered Bond Council (the USCBC) is a forum sponsored by The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) through which a diversity of market participants desire to promote a U.S. covered-bond market as a complementary and additional funding source for financial assets. Fundamental to the USCBC’s mission is the development of market policies and practices that uphold public confidence in U.S. covered Bond to the benefit of issuers, investors and ultimately consumers and the public. As the voice of the U.S. covered bond market, the USCBC will further represent the industry's interests through constructive dialogue with legislative, regulatory and other policymaking bodies.

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USCBC News

Industry experts gathered in Washington this past Friday at the City Club in Washington for a well attended panel discussion entitled; “Why the US needs Covered Bonds”. The timing of the panel proved opportune given the recent issuance of a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) USD $2 billion, three-year landmark dollar-denominated covered bond. The events widespread sponsorship reflected the growing and broad based interest and support for the development of a US Covered Bond market and the dedicated legislative framework believed to be instrumental to success. Read More...

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USCBC Membership

Active participation in USCBC committees and working groups necessitates a current membership in SIFMA. However, interested parties are welcome to contact our staff and to put their name on our Interested Party Distribution List. We will make every effort to keep you apprised of significant developments.

A full roster will be posted in the near future.

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Steering Committee

The Council will be led by a 16 member steering committee with representation from various market constituencies. The steering committee construction provides for representation of four issuers, four investors, five dealers and three legal advisors. The Council will however operate substantially through its working groups and committees including a Regulatory and Legislative Working Group, a Technical Issues Working Group and a Traders Committee. These working groups and committees will benefit from the input of a large and diverse group of market participants.

The current Steering Committee representation is as follows:

Category	Firm	Representative
Issuer	Bank of America	Bradley J. Brown/ Chair
Issuer	Citi	Charles Wainhouse
Issuer	J.P. Morgan	Brent Barton
Issuer	Wells Fargo	Larry Rubenstein
Investor	BlackRock	Joshua Friedberg
Investor	The Capital Group Companies	Meenakshi Pursnani
Investor	PIMCO	Yuri Garbuzov
Investor	TIAA-CREF	John Cerra
Law Firm	Morrsion & Foerster	Jerry Marlatt
Law Firm	Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP	Scott Stengel
Law Firm	Sidley Austin LLP	Michael Durrer
Dealer	Barclays Capital	Ben Colice
Dealer	Deutsche Bank Securities	Jeanmarie Genirs
Dealer	JP Morgan Securities	Alberto Basu
Dealer	Merrill Lynch & Co.	Tim Skeet
Dealer	RBS Greenwich Capital	Prue Larocca

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Regulatory and Legislative Working Group

The Regulatory and Legislative Working Group will discuss and formulate USCBC positions on the current and prospective legal and regulatory framework for U.S. covered Bond. Participation in this working group is open to all USCBC members.

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Technical Issues Working Group

The Technical Issues Working Group will cover a variety of topics including investor education, documentation and structures, market practice issues and rating agency treatment of U.S. covered Bond. Participation in this working group is open to all USCBC members.

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Traders Committee

The U.S. Covered Bond Traders Committee is designed to be a forum for dealer firms to discuss primary and secondary trading and market making issues and best practices for U.S. covered Bond. Member firms desire to play an active role in further development of a U.S. covered bond. In order to foster and strengthen the market, the current member firms of the U.S. Covered Bond Traders Committee have each committed to:

Appoint a dedicated U.S. covered bond trader within each firm.
Provide their respective indicative price information to electronic platforms available to U.S. covered bond investors.
Facilitate the growth of the market through the provision of liquidity on a “best
intentions” basis.
Devote research and other resources to foster the market and ensure broader
understanding and acceptance of the covered bond product.
Work jointly to create and support a U.S. Covered Bond Council as a forum for
representation and discussion among all market participants, including dealers,
issuers and investors, and to promote the ongoing development and efficient
functioning of the U.S. covered bond market.

Participation on this committee is open to all broker dealer members of the USCBC who are willing and able to devote resources to the covered bond product as per the Committee’s public commitments.

The current members to the U.S. Covered Bond Traders Committee are as follows:

Firm	Primary Committee Member
Bank of American Securities	Tom Mullen
Barclays Capital	Michael Graf
BNP Paribas	Michael Halaby
Citi	Steven Schulman
Credit-Suisse	Ivan Hrazdira
Deutsche Bank Securities	Jeanmarie Genirs
Goldman Sachs & Co.	Beth Hammack / Co-Chair
HSBC Securities Inc.	Robert Matelwich
Jefferies	Dan Markaity
JP Morgan Securities	Tim Coughlin
Merrill Lynch & Co	Ian Burdette / Co-Chair
Morgan Stanley	Kevin Sheehan
RBC Capital Markets	Andrew Lothian
RBS Greenwich Capital	Scott Graham
Societe Generale	Ted Ake
UBS	Eric Mohamad

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US Treasury Best Practices

July 2008
U.S. Treasury Best Practices for Residential Covered Bond with Final FDIC Covered Bond Policy Statement

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USCBC Press Releases

July 29, 2010
SIFMA Supports the Creation of a U.S. Covered Bond Market

July 28, 2008
SIFMA Announces Formation of U.S. Covered Bond Traders Committee

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USCBC Correspondence and Filings

December 15, 2009
On December 15th, The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled: “Covered Bond: Prospects for a U.S. Market Going Forward.” The US Covered Bond Council was directly represented by Scott Stengel of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. His testimony can be found here. (pdf) Also, view the archived webcast and other written testimony here.

March 25, 2009
SIFMA and ASF comment on the Covered Bond Rating Methodology that was
published by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on February 4, 2009