This is the last week to vote for your winners of GlobalCapital’s 2026 European Securitization Awards! View the shortlist and vote here by January 23.
On this week’s podcast, Tom Hall goes through a a week of sterling ABS issuance, starring Santander which priced a dual tranche RMBS from its Holmes shelf with both three and five year paper available. It was part of a busy week for bank funding, as discussed here.
Thomas Hopkins, meanwhile, dissects the dangers that rise in LMEs would pose for European CLOs. The good news for Thomas and the CLO market is that issuance is back for the year at last, with two trades being priced last week. Fair Oaks and M&G both refinanced deals on Friday, just hours after the podcast was recorded.
An ordinary meeting?
Last Thursday, the European Parliament’s committee on economic and monetary affairs held an “ordinary meeting” featuring a section on the securitization package, kicking off the debate on rapporteur Ralf Seekatz’s proposed amendments.
You can watch it here, with a choice of languages, starting from 10:51. It makes interesting viewing because it publically sketches the politics of debate about whether and how the EU should seek to invigorate its securitization market.
GlobalCapital’s special report on regulation at Global ABS 2025 mused that, “the swing constituency in the debate might well be sympathetic to Draghi’s aim of using securitization to channel European savings into boosting productivity but worried about whether relaxing regulation poses a risk to financial stability”.
That does indeed seem to be the lines along which the debate is shaping up. In his remarks, Seekatz framed the rules introduced after the financial crisis as too cautious.
“Now the regulations are too conservative, too restrictive and they are failing to allow the market to develop to its potential freely,” he said. “Risk adequacy must be improved […] in order to strengthen the real economy.”
After the Commission made its proposals, some wondered if that was to be as good as it got for the market. In fact, Seekatz’s proposed amendments were mostly seen as more favourable for securitization.
The question is whether that positivity will survive the parliamentary process. Views at the Committee meeting ranged from some pressing the case for regulation that goes further still to those arguing the current proposals go too far.
Overall, the tone seemed to be that the regs do need to be more risk sensitive, but it seems there is more negotiating to do.
