Asset securitization in Europe

Until the late 1980s, asset securitisation was an US-American finance technique. Meanwhile this technique has been used also in some European countries, although to a much lesser extent. While some of them have adopted or developed their legal and regulatory framework, others remain on earlier stages. That may be because of the lack of economic incentives, but also because of remaining regulatory or legal impediments. The following overview deals with the legal and regulatory environment in five selected European countries. It is structured as follows: First, this finance technique will be described in outline to the benefit of the reader who might not be familiar with it. A further part will report the recent development and the underlying economic reasons that drive this development. The main part will then deal with international aspects and give an overview of some legal and regulatory issues in five European legislations. Tax and accounting questions are, however, excluded. Concluding remarks follow

TALF: Jump-starting the securitization markets

In the financial crisis that began in August 2007, securitization activity virtually dried up. When the housing bubble burst, the value of the collateral backing much of the asset-backed securities (ABS) declined sharply, and so did the value of the securities themselves. The Federal Reserve responded by creating the term asset-backed securities loan facility, or TALF. Its purpose is to boost securitization by providing loans to people holding certain highly rated ABS. These loans will then support new ABS issues and help thaw out the securitization markets. Judging from both new issues and spreads in secondary markets, the TALF appears to be meeting its objective of jump-starting the securitization markets.Securities ; Asset-backed financing ; Financial crises ; Federal Reserve System

Tranching, CDS and Asset Prices: How Financial Innovation Can Cause Bubbles and Crashes

We show how the timing of financial innovation might have contributed to the mortgage boom and then to the bust of 2007-2009. We study the effect of leverage, tranching, securitization and CDS on asset prices in a general equilibrium model with collateral. We show why tranching and leverage tend to raise asset prices and why CDS tend to lower them. This may seem puzzling, since it implies that creating a derivative tranche in the securitization whose payoffs are identical to the CDS will raise the underlying asset price while the CDS outside the securitization lowers it. The resolution of the puzzle is that the CDS lowers the value of the underlying asset since it is equivalent to tranching cash.Financial innovation, Endogenous leverage, Collateral equilibrium, CDS, Tranching and asset prices

The Future of Securitization

Securitization, a process in which firms can raise low-cost financing by efficiently allocating asset risks with investor appetite for risk, has been one of the most dominant and fastest-growing means of capital formation in the United States and the world. The subprime financial crisis, however, has revealed certain defects with how securitization is sometimes utilized. This article examines these defects and the extent they can, and should, be remedied going forward

Asset price, asset securitization and financial stability

Prior to the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, securitization has been widely perceived as a way to disperse credit risks, and to enhance financial system’s capacity in dealing with defaults. This paper develops a model of securitization and financial stability in the form of amplification effects. This model has illustrated three different scenarios: A negative shock in the economy will lead to downturn of the economy and falling of the asset prices, deteriorating balance sheets and tightening financing conditions. However, if there is no shock or a positive shock, banks can improve its profitability significantly through securitization. While securitization decreases the probability of systemic crisis, banks tend to suffer more when the crisis happens as a result of over-borrowing and over-investing. This paper uses a three-period theoretical model to demonstrate the impact of securitization on the financial stability, and provides clear analytical guidelines for a new regulatory framework of securitization that account for systemic risk and systemic externalities.Asset Price; Asset Securitization; Systemic Risk; Financial Stability

Secondary Market in Solar: Securitization

This Project examines the nascent field of financial securitization in solar. Securitization aggregates a similar type of assets (i.e. mortgages or credit card debt) in order to sell the future cashflows to investors based on a set contract regarding principle and interest, thus making the performance of an illiquid asset similar to that of bonds. Securitization allows greater levels of public capital to invest in these products and lowers the cost of capital that asset class must pay. Solar has grown greatly in the last five years as an asset class and thus securitization has begun to develop. The paper will look at the recent development in securitization type investment vehicles for solar. This includes Solar City’s Asset Backed Securitizations and six yieldcos now publically traded. The paper will then explore ways securitization can continue to grow and how it can benefit the solar industry. Key developments in Standardization for contracts and for investors will help securitization grow

Securitization

Obscure just 20 years ago, loan portfolio securitization by private and government-sponsored enterprises is a $5 trillion business today. This Commentary explains the reasons behind the spectacular growth of asset-backed securities.Asset-backed financing

Financial intermediation theory and implications for the sources of value in structured finance markets

Structured finance instruments represent a form of securitization technology which can be defined by the characteristics of pooling of financial assets, delinking of the credit risk of the asset pool from the credit risk of the originating intermediary, and issuance of tranched liabilities backed by the asset pool. Tranching effectively accomplishes a "slicing" of the loss distribution of the underlying asset pool. This paper reviews the finance literature relating to security design and securitization, in order to identify the economic forces underlying the creation of SF instruments. A question addressed is under what circumstances one would expect to observe pooling alone (as with traditional securitization) versus pooling and tranching combined (as with structured finance). It is argued that asymmetric information problems between an originator and investors can lead to pooling of assets and tranching of associated liabilities, as opposed to pooling alone. The more acute the problem of adverse selection, the more likely is value to be created through issuance of tranched assetbacked securities. Structured finance instruments also help to complete incomplete financial markets, and they may also appear in response to market segmentation.Structured finance, securitization

Securitization and community lending: a framework and some lessons from the experience in the U.S. mortgage market

The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for analyzing the development of securitization as a vehicle for funding community economic development (CED) loans. Broadly speaking, there are two models for funding assets: the portfolio lender model, which typically involves banks or other intermediaries originating and holding the loans and funding them mainly with debt, most often deposits, and the securitization model, which involves tapping bond markets for funds, for instance, by pooling loans and selling shares in the pools. The focus here is on broad issues of when securitization is likely to be the more economic form of funding, some specifics of how the funding might be structured, and an analysis of the experience in the U.S. mortgage market.Mortgage loans ; Asset-backed financing