UK Treasury publishes report on the review of the securitisation regime

The UK Treasury just released its report on the review of the securitisation regime. The overall impression is that the UK government is broadly happy with the current regime and is certainly not evincing any wish to tear up the rule book or effect radical changes to the regime inherited from the EU Securitisation Regulation. This report is about tweaking not transforming. A number of technical issues are broached, some small – but not insignificant – changes are mooted but the report is light on concrete proposals or time frames. On many of the issues where the report does suggest […]

On Friday 25th, the final pieces of the STS regulatory puzzle fell into place when ESMA registered two securitisation repositories. The registrations of both the European Datawarehouse GmbH, based in Frankfurt, and Secrep B.V. , based in Rotterdam, were announced on the same day. Both firms have long experience in the field, Secrep B.V. having been set up by the founders of Euro-ABS. Both will be able to operate throughout the EU. Following this registration, originators of European Union securitisations will - as of 30th June 2021 - mandatorily have to report their data through one of these repositories. This […]

FCA STS list up and running

First, PCS wishes for all a new year more serene than the one just ended and hopes that the holiday season proved to be a source of joy and rest notwithstanding the various restrictions imposed by the pandemic. As they had promised, the UK FCA set up their website list for UK transactions wishing to be treated as STS in the hands of UK investors. As our attentive readers will recall, this was a necessary step for the STS regime to come into force in the United Kingdom on January 1st. It has been done. To save you from having […]

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) has issued a statement clarifying the impact of Brexit on STS. It just confirms what we knew: existing STS transactions with a UK originator or sponsor or special purpose vehicle will cease to be STS in the hands of European Union investors. The only small additional point is timing. The rules grant CRR and LCR benefits to STS transactions. An STS transaction is a transaction that meets the requirements and appears on the ESMA list. Therefore, there was the possibility of a short grace period between 1st January 2021 and the […]

Monday saw two important announcements from European regulators. First, the UK Financial Conduct Authority went live with its new STS notification platform. As of 11 pm on 31st December, UK securitisations will no longer be STS in the hands of UK investors unless they appear in a new publicly available list hosted by the FCA and replacing the ESMA list to which all securitisations were previously notified. To avoid a problematic interregnum between the time the new rules come into force at the end of the year and the time it takes for UK transactions previously notified to ESMA to […]

Yesterday, the ECON committee of the European Parliament pushed back to November 9th a key meeting to agree their version of the proposed amendments to the STS Regulation. This delay further reduces the already slim chances of the proposed changes beating the Brexit deadline for incorporation into the UK’s securitisation regime. For those who are not experts in the intricacies of placing European laws on the statute books, the key is to remember that under the UK Withdrawal Act, only European laws that are “in force” at 11.00pm London time on the 31st December 2020 will be UK laws going […]

Last Friday the UK Financial Conduct Authority published a consultation on some of the changes that may be made to their Handbook. Most important for stakeholders are the proposals for what happens at 11.00 pm London time on 31st December as the Brexit transition period comes to an end. This consultation, which may be found here, covers a number of Brexit topics in paragraph 4. These include (from paragraph 4.17 onwards) securitisation issues, namely data templates, data repositories, STS notifications, counterparty risks and risk retention. The consultation period ends on October 5th. With so many tricky issues of detail plaguing […]

More about the B-word: the UK FCA puts out a consultation on STS

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has just issued a consultation relating to the format of future STS notifications in a world where the United Kingdom may no longer be part of the European Union. Entitled a “Draft technical standards on the content and format of STS notifications under the onshored Securitisation Regulation”, the consultation is the first to deal with the technical standards to be applied in the UK in the event of a departure by the UK from the EU without some transitional arrangements. Responses are required by August 27th, so if you had not yet found a good […]

British Treasury publishes its response to the EC Green Paper

Her Majesty's Treasury has published early its response to the European Commission's consultation on the Capital Markets Union (CMU). On the securitisation chapter, HMT's response is supportive of the introduction of a definition of qualifying securitisation through a EU directive. The response was published early (as the deadline in May 13th) to respect the convention whereby the civil service eschews the publication of policy documents close to a general election. The British government's position, which we welcome, appears very much in line with the current direction of travel on securitisation within the Commission. It would seem that growing support is […]

Bank of England and ECB respond to the EU Consultation on securitisation

The Bank of England and the ECB released a joint-response to the European Commission Consultation on securitisation. In their response they appear curiously to favour issuer self-certification of quality. This approach, which is not that of the PCS, is quite a bold one in the light of the events that precipitated the financial crisis. It remains to be seen whether it is one that commends itself to policy makers and investors who suffered the consequences of the sales by issuers of purportedly high quality securitisations that then suffered such dramatic losses.

« Previous 1 2 3 Next »

UK Treasury publishes report on the review of the securitisation regime

Final pieces of the puzzle fall into place - Data Repositories

FCA STS list up and running

A new ESAs statement and Brexit - Chronicles of a Death Foretold

Monday sees important announcements from the EBA on SRT and the FCA on STS

Chances of new synthetic STS and NPL rules applying to the United Kingdom recede

United Kingdom FCA publishes a consultation on the end of the Brexit transition period

More about the B-word: the UK FCA puts out a consultation on STS

British Treasury publishes its response to the EC Green Paper

Bank of England and ECB respond to the EU Consultation on securitisation