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If you would like to see an example of a covered bond issuer’s monthly reporting, including detailed data on the cover pool, this is a good place to start.  The particular covered bonds that are the subject of these reports also have historical significance, since they were a “first” for the U.S. when Washington Mutual introduced them in 2006.  Of course, they are now under the aegis of JPMorgan, on whose website these reports currently reside.

Covered Bond Report is a periodical prepared by Germany's Bayerische Landesbank.  Its issues are Europe-focused but meaty, with lots of charts and graphs.  (It is specifically not intended for distribution in the U.S.)  Issue No. 22 includes information on topics including Britain’s new program to register for regulated covered bonds; the perilous situation at Hypo Real Estate Groups (which is a major player in German covered bonds); and the advent of new state guarantees for bonds.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke spoke via satellite at a symposium on “The Mortgage Meltdown, the Economy, and Public Policy,” held Oct. 31 in Berkeley, CA under the auspices of UC Berkeley and UCLA.  In part of his presentation, he discussed covered bonds as a possible alternative to the GSEs.  

In one paragraph of this seven-page “Client Advisory,” lawyers of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP suggest that a “possible exit strategy for TARP assets would involve the use of special purpose vehicles to issue obligations backed by the TARP assets in a structured finance or covered bond transaction….  Presumably, the Treasury Department would be mindful of the need to address many of the perceived deficiencies of previous structured finance transactions, such as insufficient transparency, moral hazard caused by originators not retaining enough “skin in the g