The Structured Finance Industry Group (SFIG) has set up a task force to craft a response to the European Banking Authority (EBA) consultation on high quality securitizations.
SFIG’s High Quality Securitization Task Force will respond to recent initiatives that seek to define “qualifying securitizations,” outlined in the EBA’s discussion paper on simple standard and transparent securitization.
The paper published on Oct. 14, follows the formal request of the European Commission to the EBA for advice on the regulatory treatment of high quality securitizations. The consultation period ends on Jan. 14.
“In 2015, the EBA’s is expected to emerge as a key element of the developments around high quality securitization in Europe and will probably be the locomotive that drives forward the entire process," stated the Prime Collateralized Securities initiative, a European securitization trade group, in a report this week.
PCS stated that SFIG’s engagement with these key developments “will provide an opportunity to maintain a debate at a global level which can only be a positive for the securitization industry in Europe.”
European outstanding securitization volume at the end of 2013 was about EUR 1.5 trillion, around one fifth of the U.S. securitization market, according to figures reported by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. From 2008 through the first quarter of 2014, the vast majority of issued transactions was retained by issuers themselves.
