Markit, a provider of data, portfolio valuations and over-the-counter derivatives trade processing, announced that it is working with dealers to facilitate the distribution of European asset-backed securities (ABS) prospectuses and investor reports in a freely available manner.
In response to calls by the European Commission for greater transparency in the European ABS markets, Markit is developing an industry-led solution with the support of several dealers to encourage best practice. Dealers involved in this initiative include: BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.
Markit will consolidate prospectuses and investor reports for European ABS transactions on a single Web site and will make the information available to all buy-side and sell-side firms and third parties, as permitted by local regulation.
“This initiative shows that the structured finance industry is taking the lead in tackling the need for greater transparency in the European ABS markets today,” says Amany Attia, managing director and head of European securitised products at Lehman Brothers. “A number of dealers have made a commitment to support Markit’s platform, and we hope that this greater availability of key deal and performance information will restore investor confidence in these markets.”
“We are pleased to be supporting Markit’s initiative which will address the European Commission’s calls for greater transparency in the structured finance markets, and we look forward to working with the broader group to bring best practice to the European ABS markets,” says Lee Rochford, head of fixed income securitisation for Europe at Royal Bank of Scotland.
“We welcome Markit’s initiative to launch an industry-led solution to provide freely accessible surveillance information for European securitisations,” says Rick Watson, managing director and head of the European securitisation forum. “This will bring greater transparency to the European structured finance industry, and will work in concert with the ESF’s own efforts to boost the availability of performance information in these markets.”
“This initiative is designed to provide greater transparency to investors in European ABS and will streamline the performance surveillance process,” says Ben Logan, managing director of structured finance at Markit. “We also expect it to spur the development of analytics and valuations by third party providers which will ultimately bring greater price discovery and liquidity to the European ABS markets.”