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Several amendments to H.R. 5823 — the latest version of covered bond legislation in Congress — were added to the bill during the markup session of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) before the HSFC voted to report the bill to the House floor.

• A four-page amendment from Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) provides for a system of joint regulation by a variety of entities instead of oversight by a single regulator.

To download a PDF of the Bean amendment, click on "20100728 bean" under "Attachments," below.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) kicked off its covered bond program on July 15 with a three-year, U.S. dollar-denominated covered bond in the amount of $2.5 billion, under its US $15 billion covered bond program.  The Prospectus (dated July 19) set forth legal terms establishing the program.

This eight-page legal document (released July 5, dated June 25) contains the contractual terms and other information regarding the second U.S. dollar-denominated covered bond issue of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), in the amount of $1.25 billion, under its €8 billion Global Public Sector Covered Bond Program.  The bonds are not offered to any U.S. person or address in the U.S. except to Qualified Institutional Buyers.

The final shape of the financial services reform bill — a compromise between versions previously passed separately by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate — will be determined by a House-Senate conference committee comprised of members from both chambers.  On June 22, the House conferees voted to include covered bond provisions as part of the compromise version they would like the Senate side to agree with.