Eraj Asadi, executive director and head of asset-backed commercial paper at New York-based Rabobank International, says he wants to grow issuance levels for Nieuw Amsterdam, the bank's ABCP program to $6 billion a year. This represents a 50% increase from the $4 billion conduit's current size. The conduit's initial size was $1 billion in 1999.
Nieuw Amsterdam is Rabobank's multi-seller conduit in the U.S. It issues ABCP and uses the proceeds to buy trade and term receivables, loans and securities or to make loans secured by those assets. Asadi's team, made of five staffers, is part of Rabobank's asset-backed finance unit. There are no plans to add staffers to the ABCP team for next year, he says. Rabobank International, the investment arm of Rabobank Group in the Netherlands' is an active ABS player in the U.S in both the ABCP and CDO markets.