EFAMA’s Tanguy van de Werve says securitisation can help reconnect investors with the real economy, if Brussels can manage to deliver clarity, proportionate rules, and trust.
Securitisation is back on Europe’s policy agenda. Once seen as a symbol of pre-2008 excess, it is now being reframed as a tool to strengthen capital markets, diversify bank funding and channel savings into the real economy. For Tanguy van de Werve, director general of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), a transparent, high-quality securitisation market is central to Europe’s competitiveness.
“Securitisation offers diversified, high-quality exposure to European real-economy assets such as loans to SMEs, consumer finance and residential mortgages, with historically robust credit performance,” he told Investment Officer. “This offers attractive risk-adjusted yields in a fixed-income landscape where traditional spreads have tightened.”
“Underlying asset pools are higher quality, structures are more transparent and post-crisis safeguards are firmly in place.”
Van de Werve said the market has evolved significantly since the financial crisis. “Underlying asset pools are higher quality, structures are more transparent and post-crisis safeguards are firmly in place.”
He added that securitisation serves a broader purpose beyond yield. “Investing in securitisations also serves a broader purpose of reconnecting capital markets with the real economy. By enabling banks to free up balance sheets and recycle capital into new lending, securitisation strengthens the link between savers and productive investment – a key pillar for Europe’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy.”
Market recovering, but still below pre-crisis levels
After years of stagnation, Europe’s securitisation market is showing signs of recovery. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe reports issuance of around 213 billion euros in 2023, with 94 billion euros placed with investors and the rest retained by banks. The European Central Bank estimates outstanding volumes at 1,200 billion euros, roughly half their pre-crisis level.
“The perception of securitisation as complex and opaque is rooted in the pre-2008 model, not in today’s European market.”
Van de Werve said lingering perceptions of complexity and risk no longer match reality. “The perception of securitisation as complex and opaque is rooted in the pre-2008 model, not in today’s European market,” he said. “Enhanced disclosure and reporting standards have significantly improved transparency and comparability of securitisations – providing investors with access to granular loan-level data, harmonised templates and regulatory due diligence requirements that make the asset class far more accessible and transparent.”
He emphasised that simplicity should not mean lower standards. “We strongly believe that simplifications enhance risk assessments and transparency, strengthening the regulatory framework by reducing ‘white noise’,” he said. “While standardised reports can facilitate investor analysis and comparison, it is recognised that a one-size-fits-all template is not fit for purpose for all securitisations and distracts from a thorough, tailored and critical assessment of the securitisation at hand. For EFAMA and its buy-side members, transparency and robust risk assessment remain non-negotiable.”
Reform priorities
The EU’s current framework, EFAMA argues, remains too prescriptive and risks discouraging investor participation. The association wants the EU Securitisation Regulation to adopt a more principles-based approach to due diligence, recognising asset managers’ existing risk processes. It also supports simplifying disclosure for private transactions and removing barriers that prevent European investors from buying non-EU securitisations.
Van de Werve said these changes would help Europe develop a more balanced and integrated market. He noted that European securitisation structures have matured and could offer institutional investors a stable, long-term source of income.
Proportionate supervision
The European Commission’s 2025 review of the Securitisation Regulation acknowledges that the framework has not achieved its policy goals. Planned changes to risk retention, liquidity treatment and prudential capital charges aim to make high-quality securitisations more attractive.
Van de Werve welcomed the new push but warned that proportionate supervision is essential if reforms are to rebuild trust. He said securitisation fits naturally within Europe’s broader push to complete its Capital Markets Union and Savings and Investment Union.
Despite progress, Europe’s market remains far smaller than that of the United States, where issuance is roughly ten times higher relative to GDP. Cultural preferences for deposits and covered bonds persist, and the shadow of 2008 still lingers. Yet Van de Werve believes the direction of travel is positive.
“Europe’s capital markets are too important to be held back by administrative friction,” he said at a recent industry event in Norway. “Simpler, smarter regulation can reconnect capital with the real economy, and that is what will ultimately matter to investors.”