Figures reported at the Royal Bank of Scotland place Italian issuance at 21.7 billion (US$25.5 billion) year-to-date, trailing behind the 30.4 billion (US$35.8 billion) recorded at the same time last year. Analysts at the bank said that the postponement of the government-related securtization, SCIP-3, could put pressure on year-end tally's but added that a talked about 3 billion (US$3.5 billion) deal from INDAP to finance a high speed rail link and a 5 billion (US$5.8 billion) securitization of social security payments could help to boost figures.
According to Standard & Poor's, the Italian market share for cash flow transactions was 14% as of Sept. 30 and it is expected to place second in Europe by year-end with volumes about 34 billion (US$40.7 billion). The rating agency said it expected to see at least 16 new deals before the close of the year. "This combination of a growing asset comfort of market participants to securitization and a general levelling off of volumes in the issuance of the traditional asset classes is a demonstration of a maturing market," said Robert Paciotti, director of S&P's structured finance division in Italy. The remarks were made at the Milan conference on securitization held this week.
