Canada's securitization giant Ian Bandeen resigned last week from Nesbitt Burns Inc., in pursuit of some time off before considering new ventures.
Bandeen plans to explore the principal finance arena, focusing on the North American markets with an initial interest in Canada.
"There's tremendous changes in the Canadian securitization industry," said Bandeen. "I really would like to have some time for research, and then to have an in-depth, frank conversation with the right people, and to get a strong sense of the direction of this industry."
Nesbitt Burns, currently No. 1 in underwriting Canadian ABS, runs 36% of the Canadian term market, 12% more than the bank's nearest competitor, CIBC World Market, according to Bandeen.
"Without question, Ian brought Nesbitt Burns to its place in the market," said Paul Smeeton, Bandeen's successor at Nesbitt Burns.
According to Smeeton, Nesbitt Burns has been at the top of the Canadian term market since 1991, and has lead the conduit market for the past two years.
Not only is Bandeen responsible for Nesbitt Burns' placement in the market, but according to Canada's ABS community, he is in a large way responsible for the market itself.
He was a co-founder of the Canadian mortgage-backed securities sector in 1986, while at Scotia McLeod. "Ian's area of expertise was originally the MBS market, and then the terms market," said Smeeton.
In 1991 Bandeen launched Canada's first ABS term transaction, a $350 million auto-backed deal by Chrysler.
"Ian was responsible for the initial Canadian securitization transactions by Chrysler, GMAC, CitiBank, Household, and IBM," said Smeeton. "Those five companies were all major issuers in the earlier 90s, and he would have been the leader of the group responsible for those transactions."
Bandeen was the managing director and global head of securitization and structured finance at Nesbitt Burns.
"The thought was to take a month off," he added. "But the phones are already ringing."
Holding down the fort at Nesbitt Burns is Paul Stevenson who will be in charge of U.K. activity, and Jeff Phillips, in charge of U.S. activity. Smeeton will run the Canadian markets.
