Luxembourg’s parliament, known as the Chambre des Députés, on Wednesday approved a long-awaited modernisation of the Grand Duchy’s securitisation law that will enable fund managers to actively manage pooled debts such as corporate loans and mortgages.
The parliament’s rapporteur, liberal democrat MP André Bauler, said the law will create more flexibility for financial services companies and broader choice for investors, and that it will give Luxembourg a “first mover advantage, much like with UCITS in the 1980s”.
Clear majority
The law was approved with a clear majority of 44 votes in the 60-seat Chamber, thanks to backing from the three political parties - liberal democrats, social democrats and the green party - that make up the government coalition.
Not surprisingly, the securitisation proposal drew critical comments from the Left and the Pirate Party, who both voted against.
Finance Minister Yuriko Backes, in her first appearance at the Chamber since she took office last month, said the modernised law “undoubtedly contributes to the ecosystem for new financial activities”.
Remain competitive
The updated legal framework includes “tough rules to protect investors,” Backes told parliament, and ensures proper risk controls are in place, with a clear role assigned to the financial regulators. She said the law means Luxembourg can “remain competitive”.
Holger von Keutz, ExCo member and Treasurer of LuxCMA, the Luxembourg capital markets association, said the changes demonstrate Luxembourg’s “willingness to remain the leading European securitisation hub”.
“LuxCMA is convinced that more players will now look into Luxembourg before setting-up new structures as the amended law caters for the flexibility that market participants need,” he told InvestmentOfficer.
Financial services companies now can actively manage securitised products. Earlier active management was not permitted. Fund managers were obliged to hold pooled loans in their portfolios until the loans matured, making it hard to adjust to changing risk as time passed.
Capital Markets Union
At EU level, securitisation was identified as an area that required a better legal framework and has become a key chapter in the EU’s plans for a Capital Markets Union.
The changes have been under discussion for almost five years, during which Ireland and also the Netherlands - until the VAT regime was changed - were able to develop as hubs for securitised products in Europe.
With its new legal framework Luxembourg has high hopes of becoming the leading market place for securitisation products in continental Europe, both for Collateralised Loan Obligations, known as CLOs, and for Collateralised Mortgage Obligations, or CMOs.
Freeing up ‘regulatory capital’
Backes said such products will make it easier to finance businesses. The measures “offer new liquidity for banks and companies,” she told MPs.
Banks in Europe are generally obliged to keep corporate loans and mortgages on their balance sheet. As a result they need to reserve funds for what is known as “regulatory capital” so that they can comply with stringent regulatory requirements.
By securitising their debts as products that pool various debts together into a single product, bank can offload these debts from their balance sheet, freeing up the “regulatory capital” so that they can lend more to other companies seeking credit.
Broader choice for investors
Backes, as finance minister, praised the parliament also because of Luxembourg’s track record in the transposition of EU requirements, adding that Luxembourg is one of the top three countries in the EU when it comes to adjusting its laws to what has been agreed at EU level.
For investors, securitised debt products are generally regarded as attractive because it gives them a broader choice when it comes to allocating assets. It makes it easier for example to invest in pooled corporate debts or in mortgage pools.
Critics however fear the possibility of uncontrollable risks with investments in securitised products. CMOs in the United States for example played a major in the financial 2007-8 global financial crisis, when mortgages that were pooled into such products did not have the quality they were supposed to have.
Like nuclear power
Left MP Nathalie Oberweiss said she voted against the law because products such as these “put millions of people into poverty.” She likened securitised financial products to nuclear power. “When things go wrong, they really go wrong,” she said.
MP Sven Clement of the Pirate Party described the law as a “spectacular financial project” and said he fears the changes will exacerbate an already overheated housing market in Luxembourg as “speculators and financial institutions now also can become house owners.”
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