| Securitization stalwarts | ||||
| Top UK lenders in 2006 and percent of origination funded by RMBS | ||||
| Bank | Gross lending £bln | Market share % | Gross RMBS issued £bln | % funded by RMBS |
| HBOS | 73.2 | 21.2 | 19 | 25.9 |
| Abbey | 32.6 | 9.4 | 10.8 | 33.2 |
| Northern Rock | 29 | 8.4 | 27 | 93.1 |
| Lloyds TSB | 27.6 | 8 | 15.2 | 54.9 |
| Nationwide | 21.1 | 6.1 | 0 | 0 |
| Source: CML, Lehman Brothers | ||||
As uncertainty as to the future of UK mortgage lender Northern Rock persists, investors in its Granite UK RMBS master trust are getting nervous. The assets backing the trust are of high quality but this is proving of little comfort to investors as they face the prospect of non-asset-related (or rather Northern Rock-itself-related) events hitting the trust.
There is a certain irony here, as the whole point of having a true sale of assets into the trust is that it is supposed to be immune to the impact of troubles at the originator.
