New rules for covered bonds, funds, public data, copyright, consumers and clean vehicles

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1. The issuance and supervision of covered bonds is regulated. These are debt securities issued by credit institutions backed by a set of assets that guarantee payment to investors. They can be mortgage cédulas, territorial cédulas, internationalization cédulas, bonds or others.
2. Covered bond holders have a preferential right over the assets in the coverage set, which must be recorded in a special register. This protection holds even if the issuing institution goes into insolvency.
3. Every covered bond program must keep a liquidity buffer covering the maximum net liquidity outflow over the following 180 days, and must have an oversight body monitoring the coverage set in the interest of investors.
4. The Bank of Spain (Banco de España) authorizes each covered bond program and supervises compliance, while the CNMV supervises their marketing and secondary market.
5. Copyright limits are expanded in the digital environment: no authorization is needed for text and data mining, pastichePastiche A work that takes characteristic elements of another artist's work and combines them so it reads as an independent creation, with no risk of confusion., or certain educational and preservation uses. Online content-sharing platforms must obtain authorization from rights holders or remove unauthorized content.
6. Authors and performers who assign their rights are entitled to appropriate and proportionate remuneration, and those who receive the rights must inform them at least once a year about how their works are exploited.
7. Consumer protection online is strengthened: sellers on online marketplaces must disclose whether they are a business, whether reviews are genuine, and the lowest price applied in the previous 30 days before a discount. The whole system of consumer offenses and penalties is overhauled.
8. Public procurement of road transport vehicles must reach minimum percentages of clean vehicles over reference periods starting August 2, 2021. The rule takes effect the day after publication, with special deadlines for some books.

Who it affects

• Credit institutions issuing covered bonds: Must meet new coverage, liquidity, register and supervision requirements when issuing cédulas and covered bonds.
• Covered bond investors: Gain more protection: dual recourse, special privilege in insolvency, and more information about the programs.
• Online platforms, authors and performers: Must obtain authorizations to share protected content and give authors and performers remuneration and information about exploitation.
• Consumers: Receive more information before contracting online and benefit from a stronger penalty system against businesses.
• Contracting authorities and contracting entities: Must reach minimum percentages of clean vehicles in their procurement and report data to the Ministry of Transport.

Words worth knowing

Bono garantizado (covered bond)

A debt security issued by a credit institution and backed by a set of assets the investor can turn to if the bond is not paid.

Conjunto de cobertura (coverage set)

A clearly defined group of assets that guarantees payment of a covered bond program and is kept separate from the rest of the issuer's assets.

Sobregarantía (overcollateralization)

Collateral that exceeds the minimum required by law, contract or the issuer's own choice.

Minería de textos y datos (text and data mining)

An automated technique that analyzes digital texts and data to find patterns, trends or correlations.

Pastiche

A work that takes characteristic elements of another artist's work and combines them so it reads as an independent creation, with no risk of confusion.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries