The International Finance Corp., the World Bank affiliate that provides loans and equity finance for private sector enterprises in the developing world, has recently been outlining its focus for the future. This includes a number of potential securitizations and an increasing involvement in African moves towards the asset- and mortgage-backed markets.
Although the IFC could not offer specific details at this time, Arun Sharma, head of structured finance at the IFC, indicated that Latin America and India were likely locations of future transactions. "We're looking at a number of future initiatives at the moment," he said. "We're working on a medical receivables securitization in Latin America and towards a credit derivatives transaction in India."
Sharma also provided his thoughts on prospects for securitization in Africa, and the IFC's involvement in the region. So far, its involvement has been limited to the purchase of a 10% share in SA Home Loans, the South African secondary mortgage and securitization company (ASRI 4/10/2000 p. 1).
Economic difficulties and a lack of the required legal framework for securitization in other parts of the continent have prevented market development, but Sharma sees signs of progress in certain countries. "Currently, legislation is in the process of further improving the regulations for securitization transactions," he said. "We are seeing a lot of interest in Morocco and there is some interest in Tunisia and Egypt. We have even received inquiries from as far afield as Kenya."
Sharma also said the IFC is working on establishing an information management system to monitor progress on deals. "We're building a technology platform to deal with the quantitative and analytical aspects of our business. This will help us to keep up to date on the progress of deals, right from origination to modeling and reporting."
