ABN AMRO is planning to hire one or two asset-backed professionals to its North American term securitization business by the end of the year. John McCarthy, managing director and head of credit markets for the Americas, says the firm, which has bulked up its ABS unit to around 25 professionals in the last six months or so, still has some hiring left to do. The hires would be for new slots geared toward winning underwriting business in the roughly $300 billion-a-year U.S. ABS market, and could be in either origination, sales, trading or research positions, he says. Although the U.S. securitization market is relatively commoditized, McCarthy says ABN hopes to gain some market share by leveraging its relationships. The hires would report to Jim Moore, head of U.S. asset securitization.
Specifically, the bank wants to underwrite credit card, auto and home equity transactions. ABN has been awarded mandates to distribute U.S. deals that should come to market by the end of the year, McCarthy says, declining to name them. He adds the firm is not aiming for a specific level in the league tables, but rather that it wants to increase its ABS operation to offer a complete product line.
ABN didn't rank among the top 20 underwriters of U.S. securitizations during the first half of the year, according to Thomson Financial.