International Comparative Legal Guide to Securitisation

I am privileged once again, on behalf of Sidley Austin LLP and as the Guide’s Contributing Editor, to author the Preface to the latest edition of the ICLG – Securitisation, which continues to be one of the most comprehensive comparative guides to the practice of securitisation available today. The Guide is now in its 17th edition, which provides continued proof that it continues to be as relevant today as ever.
At the time of writing, in Q2 of 2024, the securitisation markets are engaged and robust in comparison to prior years, with issuance levels high and a new-found optimism in many asset classes. Data suggests FY 2023 securitisation issuance was substantially on a par with the prior year, with c. EUR 213bn of issuance of securitised product in Europe (including for these purposes the UK) in comparison to the c. EUR 203bn of securitised product issued in 2022. Across the full year in 2023, placement vs retained figures were similar to the prior year (c. EUR 94bn, representing c. 44% of issuance placed vs c. EUR 79bn placed in 2022, representing c. 39% of total issuance). As is so often the case in recent years, in Europe, European CLOs were the most active securitised asset class within Europe (including the UK), with EUR 25bn in issuance (followed by UK RMBS and German auto securitisations). The EUR 94bn of estimated securitised issuance in Europe remains a fraction of pre-2008 issuance of course and compares relatively unfavourably with prior years, such as each of 2015–2019 and 2021, which beat (albeit in some instances not by very much) that total.
In no small part related to the continued lack of growth in securitisation issuance in 2023, the pace of global regulation affecting securitisations continued unabated, with the major global regulators across the US, Europe, the UK and other relevant international jurisdictions continuing to press ahead with consultations and rule-making workstreams that will continue to affect issuance and structuring of securitisations across all asset classes and product types (many of which you can read about in the various chapters of this year’s Guide as usual).
It seems as critical and worthy a task as ever, therefore, to maintain an accurate and up-to-date Guide regarding the relevant practices and regulation of securitisation in a variety of jurisdictions. The 2024 edition of this Guide seeks to accomplish that objective by providing global businesses leaders, in-house counsel and international legal practitioners with ready access to important information regarding the legislative and regulatory frameworks for securitisation across 21 individual jurisdictions. It also surveys practices from the perspective of leading and experienced practitioners in these jurisdictions through the expert analysis chapters (which continue to be of even wider scope, and even more thought-provoking content, than previous editions), and our genuine thanks go to all of the many contributors for sharing their knowledge and experience again in this year’s Guide.
We hope that you continue to find the Guide a useful and engaging insight into the world
of securitisation.