The European Banking Authority (EBA) has excluded covered bonds from assets it has recommended should be eligible as extremely high quality liquid assets for Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) purposes in a report to the European Commission.

The EBA on 20 December published its final recommendations on the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), which exclude covered bonds from Level 1 status. Crédit Agricole CIB’s Florian Eichert takes a closer look at the potential implications, and sees investor behaviour only really changing in response to a lower minimum rating criterion. 

Fears are mounting that covered bonds could fail to secure a position as Level 1 LCR assets after it emerged that the EBA’s Board of Supervisors is against such a recommendation. However, the ECBC and others have said that Level 1 inclusion remains a real possibility.

Covered bonds are virtually as liquid as government bonds, according to a “very preliminary” draft ranking released by the European Banking Authority yesterday (Wednesday), which market participants have said puts the asset class in a strong position to be considered as Level 1 assets in Liquidity Coverage Ratios.

The Danish government announced a new package of bank regulations today (Thursday), including details on the capital requirements for systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs).