The Association of Swedish Covered Bond issuers (ASCB) has criticised the proposition that harmonisation of covered bond frameworks, as outlined in a European Commission paper, would be beneficial, as market participants responded to the consultation ahead of an originally-scheduled deadline of Wednesday.

The European Commission is open to allowing voluntary convergence of covered bond frameworks around EBA best practices, alongside a possible tightening of CRR eligibility, as an alternative to legislating moves towards harmonisation in a consultation paper released on Wednesday.

Covered bonds’ anticipated favourable treatment in the Liquidity Coverage Requirement was confirmed by the European Commission on Friday, with the highest rated covered bonds eligible for up to 70% of liquidity buffers as Level 1 assets and others in Level 2A or 2B.