This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• The stability of the Norwegian economy, supported by strong democratic and effective democracy. 
• Norway’s prudent management of one of the world’s largest oil funds, balancing resource utilisation with long-term savings objectives.
• Developments in the public and private sectors.
• Trends in the housing market, including declining house prices and turnover in the secondary housing market.
• Norway’s relationship with Europe, including future engagement with European partners and the potential joining of the EU. 

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• The rapid advancement of digitalisation and fintech deployment.
• The increasing prevalence of cross-border banking activities, including the expansion of banks beyond their domestic markets.
• Significant visible developments in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda.
• Strategic considerations for investors engaging with the regional market and its associated growth potential.
• The broader opportunities within the East African region.

In this episode of Mortgages Covered, Richard Kemmish, EMF-ECBC & ISMMA Consultant, is joined by Peter Kohl-Landgraf of DZ Bank to discuss recent developments and changes in the bond market.   

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• Tokenisation through algorithmic control, enabling direct transfer of tokens.
• The role of the public sector in facilitating standardisation.
• Key design considerations within the industry, including issues such as transparency.
• The importance of openness in enabling smaller investors to participate more easily in tokenised settlement processes on chain.
• The potential for technology to integrate the entire workflow and system chain into a unified structure.

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• Banco BPM's Green Social Sustainability Bond Framework to ensure taxonomy alignment of its assets. 
• The issuance of covered bonds under the EU Green Bond Standard.
• The transition towards more evidence-based issuance.
• The differing market experiences and developments related to EU green and social bonds.
• The key priorities and strategic objectives of the ECBC ESG Bond Task Force.

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• The factors driving the transition to a new global economic and financial environment and the resulting policy implications.
• Europe's widening productivity gap relative to other major economies and its implications for financial regulation.
• The impact of existing EU regulation on competitiveness and market efficiency.
• Market distortions, including the effects of the Basel output floor on bank's lending rates.
• The short-term and long-term solutions 

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• The categorisation of digital assets, including native cryptocurrencies, tokenised real-world assets, and digital money.
• The rapid growth of tokenised money market funds and digital asset adoption with the banking sector.
• Digital asset initiatives and tokenisation platforms launched by major financial institutions, including JP Morgan Chase and Golman Sachs.
• The worldwide momentum of digital assets, currencies and instant cross border payments.
• The regulations, risks, and governance challenges associated with digital assets.

This episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

•  The growing interest in and use of automated valuation systems (AVMs) and advances in statistical modelling for residential property valuation.
• The core principles underpinning robust valuation models, including transparency, explainability, and confidence management. 
• The management of valuation uncertainty and its role in risk management and bank competitiveness.
• The complementary roles of AVMs and physical valuers.
• The emergence of “nowcasting” techniques to increase accuracy and market responsiveness.

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• Moldova’s evolving economic landscape, including mortgage market development, transition away from dependence on Russian resources, and resilience in the face of inflationary shocks. 
• The strengthening of the financial sector through growing capital markets, ample banking liquidity, and strong bank capitalisation.
• The rapid expansion of housing finance.
• Recent capital market developments and key infrastructure reforms for deeper integration with European financial markets.
• A four-step approach for strengthening long-term mortgage growth.  

In this first episode “Mortgages Covered”, the EMF-ECBC’s new podcast series, Richard Kemmish, EMF-ECBC & ISMMA Consultant, is joined by Luca Bertalot, EMF-ECBC Secretary General, to reflect on the main takeaways from the 38th ECBC Plenary Meeting, including the focus on mortgage markets and the evolving landscape of covered bonds.

This episode of Mortgages Covered covers:

• The concept of a voluntary 28th Regime European mortgage guarantee scheme to improve housing affordability and access to home ownership.  
• The need for coordinated public and private sector action to address housing affordability challenges.  
• EMF-ECBC’s work supporting mortgage and capital market development in EU candidate countries and beyond.  
• The role of the Energy Efficient Mortgage Label in promoting transparency, standardisation and capital market access.  
• EMF-ECBC’s support for Ukraine through technical expertise, market intelligence, and regulatory guidance.