Amid the Basel II guidelines for securitisation exposures to be eligible for their respective capital treatment, a key requirement is that a significant transfer of risk must occur between the originating bank and third parties. Analysts at Merrill Lynch explore how the currently-challenged structured finance markets have brought significant risk transfer to the forefront.

Spreads have eased off slightly since the Global ABS conference in Cannes, which is not too surprising as the market widened after every Barcelona conference as well. It seems to be an inbuilt technical nuance in the market, but it is more understandable this year because there are more doom-mongers in the market and we are still in a process of consolation and reconstruction.

Benjamin Jacquard is to join up with BNP Paribas to work as the bank’s new global head of structured credit and arbitrage trading.