Britannia Building Society, which securitizes its non-member mortgages, is investigating the possibility of entering the U.S. 144a market, says John Katovsky, managing director, treasury services. He says it is also considering issuing euro-denominated tranches in its future deals. Britannia is seeking to garner more investors for its residential mortgage-backed securitizations. He declined to say what would trigger Britannia's decision to proceed with these plans.
"The U.S. market is the largest and the deepest. We have had some calls directly from U.S. investors asking us about our deals," says Katovsky. U.S. investors are increasingly looking at U.K. RMBS paper as a means of diversifying their investments. Britannia's last RMBS, Leek Finance Number Ten, was priced in April and featured a dollar tranche for the first time. Britannia has often used Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Capital as lead managers for its deals.
