A sign of the weak prospects for the European securitization business has been provided by Morgan Stanley’s aggressive cost-cutting. Ellen Brunsberg, head of the European securitized products group, is still at the firm but out of the 70-strong team, only 20 people now remain.
The remaining members of the team will look after the European loan conduit that Brunsberg ran before she became head of SPG in 2004. Steve White, Morgan Stanley’s long-standing European securitization syndicate official, is also still at the firm, as is Neil Servis, who joined from Deutsche Bank last autumn to run European CDOs.
Given the dramatic falls in Europe’s securitization volumes, the key question is when will other banks follow suit? Only Credit Suisse has taken a similarly tough approach to its European ABS business.