ABS
ABS or asset-backed securities are bonds or notes created via securitisation that are backed by a range of assets or receivables.
Generically, all securitisations can be labelled ABS and it is often used as a coverall term; in some cases in SCI, ABS will be used in this manner.
However, in many cases, ABS are taken to exclude mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and structured credit instruments, such as CDOs. If so, then asset-backed securities or ABS are taken to include consumer ABS, such as credit card securitisations, auto loan or dealer floorplan ABS, student loan securitisations, project finance/infrastructure securitisations and equipment leasing-based transactions.
ABS originators are typically loan issuers, such as banks, credit card companies, auto finance and consumer finance firms, but can be any institution that generates regular, quantifiable future income flows (or cashflows), which includes governments.
To create asset-backed securities, institutions sell pools of their loans to a special-purpose vehicle, or SPV, which then sells the loans to a trust. The trust then repackages the loans as interest-bearing securities and issues them. This true sale of the loans to the SPV ensures that the ABS is treated as being bankruptcy-remote from the originator.
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MDBs in a changing SRT world - video
EIF's Flavio Cabas talks to SCI about SRTs, the role of MDBs and regulatory developments
....... News Analysis 22 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: Outstanding Contribution to SRT
Winner: Timothy Cleary, Clifford Chance
SCI’s Outstanding Contribution to SRT Award for 2026 recognises Clifford Chance partner Timothy Cleary for a career spanning the emergence, near-disappearance and eventual rehabilitation of the synthetic securitisation market.
Cleary began working in synthetic securitisation in the early 2000s, before the financial crisis, when the market was still in its formative stages. While many of the leading .......
News 21 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: SRT Team of the Year
Winner: IFC
IFC does not simply execute deals. Given its MDB status, it also builds risk-transfer pathways for emerging market banks, insurers and institutional investors to undertake capital-efficient, profitable and developmentally impactful transactions. For its pioneering role in creating structures where formal SRT might not yet be fully feasible, undertaking both debut and follow-on SRTs to deepen risk transfer in emerging .......
News 21 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: Service Provider of the Year
Winner: iconicchain
iconicchain boasts over US$250bn in processed transaction volume, 20% global SRT issuance coverage, 100% client retention and 150%-plus year-on-year growth during the awards qualifying period. In recognition of the platform’s credentials as a widely adopted tool that improves efficiency, supports complex execution and accelerates market standards, it is Service Provider of the Year in SCI’s 2026 Risk Sharing Awards.
News 20 October 2026
SCI In Focus: EBA mandate sought as EU weighs safeguards for insurer-backed SRT
Industry seeks transitional rules and an EBA impact assessme...
The SRT industry is calling for a transitional framework and an impact assessment by the European Banking Authority (EBA) as EU negotiators consider safeguards for insurer-provided unfunded credit protection (UFCP). The proposed review would assess how STS safeguards under the Securitisation Regulation (SECR) interact with resilience requirements under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), including whether the rules duplicate existing .......
News Analysis 20 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: North American Law Firm of the Year
Winner: Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown combines strong US risk transfer transaction activity with meaningful policy advocacy on US capital rules during the awards qualifying period. In recognition of its ‘one-stop shop’ profile and diversified representation levels across innovative structures, the firm is SCI’s pick for North American Law Firm of the Year in the 2026 Risk Sharing Awards.
The firm has .......
News 20 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: European Law Firm of the Year
Winner: Latham & Watkins
SCI selected Latham & Watkins as European Law Firm of the Year in the 2026 Risk Sharing Awards, recognising the firm’s role expanding significant risk transfer (SRT) into new jurisdictions and asset classes. The firm’s strength in multilateral development bank (MDB), development finance institution (DFI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG)-linked structures, combined with strong transaction volume and investor-side .......
News 19 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: European Arranger of the Year
Winner: Revel Partners
As an independent arranger, Revel Partners is not simply arranging repeat trades for large issuers; it is expanding the issuer base and bringing less familiar collateral types and regional banks into the SRT market. In recognition of its clear strategic focus on first-time and infrequent issuers, underrepresented jurisdictions and asset classes where structuring practices are still developing, the firm .......
News 16 October 2026
Pepper eyes repeat dollar issuance after tapping US investors in latest UK RMBS
Pepper's Polaris 2026-3 taps new US-based investors with fir...
Polaris 2026-3 has brought a dollar-denominated senior tranche back to the public European RMBS market for the first time since Nationwide's Silverstone deal in January 2022, with strong demand from US accounts highlighting the potential for a broader investor base and supporting Pepper's plans for repeat dollar issuance.
The transaction, which priced on 10 October, included a US$198.4m .......
News Analysis 15 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: European Issuer of the Year
Winner: UniCredit
UniCredit combines scale, multi-country reach, capital impact and strategic integration of SRT across its Group Balance Sheet Management processes. For generating circa twice the amount of organic capital versus its core peers* via its ARTS SRT programme during the 2021-2025 period, the bank is European Issuer of the Year in SCI’s 2026 Risk Sharing Awards.
UniCredit ranks in .......
News 15 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: (Re)insurer of the Year
Winner: AXIS
AXIS has been named (Re)insurer of the Year in SCI’s 2026 Risk Sharing Awards. The award recognises the team’s disciplined growth, technical expertise and contribution to notable multilateral, emerging-market and other innovative significant risk transfer (SRT) transactions during the awards period.
Since entering the SRT market in 2022, AXIS has built the business deliberately and on a risk-controlled .......
News 15 October 2026
SCI Risk Sharing Awards: Emerging Markets Transaction of the Year
Winner: Chrysalis
News 13 October 2026
On-demand pay provider DailyPay tightens pricing on second ABS
Strong investor demand across all four tranches supports tig...
DailyPay has priced its second US$200m asset-backed securitisation (ABS) at a blended spread around 30 basis points tighter than its inaugural transaction in June 2025, with the deal more than eight times oversubscribed.
The firm which claims to be the first and only on-demand pay provider to have completed ABS transactions secured by on-demand pay .......
News 13 October 2026
French ABS supply rises despite wider spreads as equity release RMBS looms
French ABS issuance accelerates despite wider spreads and so...
French securitisation supply has accelerated in 2026 despite a volatile sovereign backdrop, with investors continuing to absorb new paper while demanding additional spread, and a new French equity release mortgage (ERM) securitisation is understood to be in the works for 2027.
A Rabobank report has highlighted that sentiment towards France became slightly more constructive last week, .......
News Analysis 12 October 2026
Italian lender completes SRT with strong investor demand
SRT market update
SRT Market Update 6 October 2026
Structured products show resilience amid credit weakness
Shifting technicals favour cash-rich buyers
European structured credit primary markets are back up and running after a brief pause last month, and the latest fixings from the SCI Composite Index (SCIx) reveal a deeply bifurcated market with a fierce rally in RMBS, and a mixed bag for ABS and CLO new issues.
RMBS was the standout tightening .......
News Analysis 5 October 2026
SCI In Focus: EU securitisation talks close in on endgame
EU securitisation talks narrow key differences, but supervis...
EU policymakers have narrowed several differences in negotiations over the bloc's securitisation framework, with prudential calibration, the sole-purpose test and significant risk transfer provisions moving closer to finalisation at technical level.
Documents obtained by SCI provide a detailed account of the positions taken by the European Parliament, Council and European Commission during the latest round of negotiations. The third .......
News Analysis 2 October 2026
Italian ABS shifts into higher gear as S&P returns to triple-A after 12 years
Santander's latest Italian auto deal marks S&P's ret...
The Italian ABS market is shifting into a higher gear, with Santander Consumer Bank's latest Italian auto ABS executed in the cash SRT format, Golden Bar 2026-2, scoring triple-A ratings from Morningstar DBRS and S&P Global on its senior notes, and marking S&P's return to triple-A ratings for Italian securitisation collateral after 12 years.
The move .......
News Analysis 1 October 2026
Reckoner doubles down on risk retention platform with Bush appointment
Asset manager expands beyond CLO investing into risk retention financing
Reckoner Capital Management is to deepen its presence on the financing side of securitisation markets, after appointing Robert Bush as md within Reckoner Capital Company (RCC).
RCC was launched earlier this year to address what Reckoner sees as a structural gap in the market.
The hire signals the firm's strategic drive to diversify from a CLO .......
News Analysis 30 September 2026
Clifford Capital continues US push for infrastructure ABS
The latest in the Bayfront series is the firm's largest IABS deal yet
Singapore-based infrastructure credit platform Clifford Capital has priced the ninth iteration of its pioneering Bayfront infrastructure asset-backed securities, as asset managers show mounting interest in the emerging asset class.
Bayfront IX, a US$802.4m deal with a static portfolio comprising 46 project finance and infrastructure debt across 43 projects in 15 countries, priced on 23 September and is the .......
News 29 September 2026