Securitised industry seen meeting EU June deadline

Tue May 6, 2008 3:15pm BST
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BRUSSELS, May 6 (Reuters) - The EU's securitisation industry is expected to deliver enough transparency by June under voluntary measures and avoid increased regulation, a senior European Commission official said on Tuesday. The European Union executive has told the securitisation industry -- whose products are at the heart of the financial turbulence related to U.S. subprime mortgages -- it must start publishing detailed information about exposures next month.

"They have promised to deliver by June. We believe industry has an interest in coming forward with more and better information on where they stand and what risks were taken," said Joergen Holmquist, director general of the European Commission's internal-market unit.

"We expect to get good results in June," Holmquist told the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee.

The data would be on primary and secondary markets and published on a regular basis.

Policymakers were horrified that as market turbulence began unfolding last August amid defaults in U.S. mortgages, banks were unable to say quickly what their exposures were to securitised products tied to home loans.

"If industry does not deliver satisfactorily, we will consider regulation," Holmquist said.

The value of such securitised products has tumbled, forcing banks including UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) to make huge writedowns. (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Dale Hudson)

 
 

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