With the deadline for compliance with the Securities & Exchange Commission's Regulation AB now less than four months away, speakers at IMN's recent ABS East conference voiced varied concerns about whether most issuers will be ready to comply by that time. One speaker even predicted the regulation's Jan. 1, 2006 deadline will cause an issuance rush in the fourth quarter of this year and a relative drought in the first quarter of next year.
"Reg AB may be the silent scud missile of this marketplace right now," said Daniel Clarke, managing director with JPMorgan Securities. Clarke said that if larger issuers find themselves unprepared to comply with the regulation going into the last month of the year, they may simply rush to get large volume deals done before year end, so they can afford to hold back on issuance at the beginning of the year, when Reg AB is in effect, until their legal teams can get comfortable with the rule.
