The UK should be seen as the “poster child” of the transition from inter-bank offered rates (Ibors) to risk-free rates, said a spokesperson from the Financial Conduct Authority, speaking at Global ABS 2020 on Wednesday, who urged the ABS market to turn towards solving the problem of legacy issuance.

Haitong International Securities Group has appointed David Ng as vice chairman of investment banking.

The UK has an opportunity to change key aspects of the Securitization Regulation once it leaves the European Union to the benefit of investors and issuers, said speakers at IMN’s Global ABS 2020 virtual conference on Tuesday.

Surging covered bond issuance that is printed only for repo at the central bank and official sector purchases means that the asset class is now less relevant for market funding purposes than ever before. If this continues, the systemic importance of the €2.7tr global market will be undermined just as efforts to develop it look to bear fruit.

GlobalCapital and Afme convened a virtual roundtable to tackle the biggest issues facing securitization as the pandemic crisis continues. While other capital markets and the wider economy are reeling from the economic fallout stemming from Covid-19, European securitization is undergoing a regulatory rejuvenation, as the European Commission turns towards structured products as a solution to the coming wave of NPLs. Meanwhile, the market for synthetic ABS is being given a second look to help free bank balance sheets across Europe and spur lending to the real economy. Over the summer, the market saw the report from the senior forum on the Capital Markets Union, which included a number of recommendations on regulatory adjustments to improve the functioning of securitization in Europe. More recently the European Commission put forward a capital markets economic recovery package including measures related to securitization. The Commission has proposed extending the STS framework to synthetic securitizations or on-balance-sheet securitizations. The Commission has also put forward proposals to remove regulatory obstacles to the securitization of NPLs including changes to the regulatory capital treatment.

In just a few days, two of the UK’s largest companies have had acquisition offers made for them by North American rivals. Heading into the 11th hour of a still chaotic Brexit process amid the highest national redundancy levels since the global financial crisis will have more foreign buyers circling yet.