Label Procedures / Label renewal and/or withdrawal

Label renewal and/or withdrawal

Renewal

The Label will be renewed annually and the issuer managing the labelled covered bond programme is meant to repeat the procedure described above at the beginning of the year, i.e. the self-certification of the compliance of its programme with the Label convention and the commitment to fulfil the transparency requirements.

Withdrawal

Voluntary Withdrawal

Issuers managing labelled covered bond programmes who decide to voluntarily discontinue their programme's registration should address a registered letter to this effect to the Label Secretariat, which, in turn, will notify the Label Committee. The retraction of the Label shall take effect 10 working days after the notification has been received by the Label Secretariat.

Non payment

Non-payment of the annual/volume fee(s) due will result in the withdrawal of the Label as of the next renewal date. Non-payment will be deemed to have occurred if the fees due have not been received into the Covered Bond Label bank account within 10 working days from the date of the reminder for payment to be sent by the CB Secretariat at the end of the initial 10 working days deadline.

Non compliance

Issuers shall inform the Label Secretariat of any changes which could affect the compliance of their labelled programmes such as, for example, the non delivery of required information, the cancellation of the covered bond programmes or changes in the specifications of the programmes. The Label Secretariat will inform the Label Committee of any such notifications, which, in turn, will take the following steps:

  • The Label Committee will decide whether or not the notified changes imply the withdrawal of the Label.
  • Should the Committee decide to withdraw the Label, the issuer will have the possibility to file an appeal within 20 working days from the date of the notification of the Committee's decision.
  • Should the Label Committee decide that the changes notified require the withdrawal of the Label, it will notify the relevant national authority, for information, of the changes signalled to it and of its subsequent decision to withdraw the Label.
  • The withdrawal of the Label shall become definitive when the 20 working days deadline (starting on the date of the notification of the Committee's decision) has elapsed and no appeal has been notified to the Label Secretariat. It will be effective on the day on which the notification of withdrawal sent by registered post reaches the issuer.
  • In cases of appeal, the Label Committee will appoint an ad hoc appeal panel. The ad hoc appeal panel will be composed of three Label Committee representatives of different issuer jurisdictions, selected on a rotating basis, together with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman. A representative of the jurisdiction where the appellant issuer is based is entitled to attend the appeal panel as an observer. The appeal panel will have 20 working days from the date of its receipt of the issuer's appeal to deliberate and present the issuer and the relevant national authority with its final decision.

The effects of a withdrawal are as follows:

  • All references to the formerly registered programme(s) will be removed from the Covered Bond Label IT infrastructure.
  • Subscription fees shall not be refundable in the case of either the voluntary or involuntary withdrawal of the label from a covered bond programme.

A covered bond issuer that chooses to withdraw from the Label or from which the Label is withdrawn is not entitled to any refund of payments already received and will have no right to claim against the Label Entity.