Is this the time to buy Spanish MBS?

Spain’s securitization market grew by more than 35% last year, driven by demand for more, and more flexible, mortgage credit. Specialist investors are now hoping that issuers can be persuaded to sell first-loss exposure to this risk. This comes, though, as concerns grow about the potential fallout from a seemingly unsustainable house price boom. Louise Bowman reports.

Non-conforming lenders fuel mortgage growth

AS NEXT BIG things go, first-loss sales of ABS transactions have been some time coming. Although changes to regulatory and accounting rules in Europe have long been a driver for banks to sell equity exposure, the market has only really picked up steam in the past year. One of the problems is supply – many banks have been far slower to come to the table than the specialist investors now piling into the sector would like (see Funds list to ease first-loss sales, Euromoney May 2006).

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