JAPAN BOOMS, KOREA BLOSSOMS, THE REST OF ASIA DOZES

Outside Japan, the Asian securitization market had a relatively quiet year in 1999. Though issuers and arrangers hoped that the year would mark a comeback for cross-border ABS deals after a similarly slow 1998, investors and monolines remained wary of Asian risk. In addition, financially weak issuers, high levels of domestic liquidity and the lack of a liquid swap market continued to holdback ABS prospects.

As a result, many houses either scaled down or redirected their securitization efforts to Japan, where the booming ABS market saw huge demand for structured finance pros.