Spain's Bankinter is debating whether it will issue a securitization of loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), says Jose Enrique Renedo, a Madrid-based member of Bankinter's capital markets group. A decision on whether to go ahead with such a deal will be made in the coming months and will depend on the bank's funding needs as well as its ability to secure a guarantee on the loans from the Spanish government, says Renedo.
Last year, the Spanish government had a guarantee program for SME securitizations, which reduced the cost of funding for the issuer. It is expected the program will be reinstated this year, but Renedo says an announcement is not expected until March or April. Renedo says it is too early to estimate how big a SME deal might be.
Another residential mortgage-backed deal is on the books for mid-year, says Renedo. Last year, Bankinter did two RMBS deals--an E1 billion deal in October and a E710 million deal in December, which it kept on balance sheet. Renedo says a new deal will probably be around E1 billion.