Euro Council Advises Bond Trading Resumption

A European Covered Bond Council committee has recommended a conditional resumption of inter-dealer market-making in the mortgage and public-sector covered-bond market, citing an improvement in market conditions that had caused the group to suggest a suspension on Nov. 21."Following more normalized trading activity in the last 2.5 days, the committee recognizes the importance of returning to the inter-bank market making system that is a key feature of the covered bond market," the committee said Nov. 26. However, given the fixed-income market's illiquidity, the committee also recommended that market makers through Dec. 14 follow its suggested minimums for trade sizes and frequency. The ECBC can be found on the Web at http://www.hypo.org.