With globalization being a key component in the asset-backed securities market, Deloitte & Touche, an accounting firm, is looking to expand its services both domestically and overseas, targeting the upper-middle and middle-markets, sources from the company said. This expansion has already gotten started by an addition to the company's roster last week.
"The firm is really growing domestically and internationally," said new hire Alicia Romo. "There are some marvelous opportunities to take what I have already done in terms of trade and mortgage receivables, and expand it into a growing market in the U.S. and initially overseas. We find that this is no longer just a product for the Fortune 500 but it fits very well in the upper-middle and middle-markets."
The company is also looking into how the Internet can be used to deliver financial services, including securitization. "We have seen the Internet used for the delivery of corporate bonds quite recently and we're very interested in how that could be used for securitization as well," Romo noted. "There are a lot of companies who are interested in using that mechanism to reach a broader investment base."
Before joining the firm, Romo acquired extensive experience in Asset Backed Commercial Paper and Financial Accounting Statute No.133 implementation. As first vice president in Countrywide Home Loans' treasury department, she introduced new software to manage the medium-term note and hedging programs for the company's debt and servicing portfolios.
Since the software she implemented was a treasury database for financing and derivatives, Romo's expertise comes in handy as more companies begin to need new technology for tracking and taking care of the risk on their derivatives.
"There are several instances where clients use swaps in their commercial-paper programs," Romo said. "Since the accounting is changing dramatically for the derivatives, we are able to advise our clients on how this will affect their hedging programs for their commercial paper, whether it's asset-backed CP or other commercial-paper programs," she added.
Romo is set to transmit the securitization expertise she gained from working with financial institutions to non-financial firms, particularly manufacturing companies. "That's really the crossover of utilizing the sophisticated techniques that financial institutions have used for years and taking them into the market," she said.
