Winner: BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas has won the Issuer of the Year category in SCI’s 2021 Capital Relief Trades Awards, thanks to the volume of transactions it issued during the awards period, as well as for furthering deal innovation and expanding the market’s investor base.

BNP Paribas has led the pack this year, with five transactions including completed and pending ones. The trades include: Noria 2021, a €900m full-stack cash STS ABS of French consumer loans; AutoNoria Spain 2021, a €1bn full-stack cash STS ABS of Spanish auto loans for Banco Cetelem; and AutoFlorence Two, an €800m full-stack cash STS ABS of Italian auto loans for Findomestic.

According to Bruno Bancal, md in the securitisation products group at BNP Paribas: ‘’We are a diversified universal bank with a strong culture of risk management. As a result, there is a strong interest in risk transfer and capital management solutions within the various business lines of the Group.’’

Indeed, to meet these needs, the bank relies on the securitisation products group - a fully integrated platform situated between banking and global markets. It brings together the expertise of portfolio management, structured credit and insurance solutions, and works very closely with the ABS syndicate and the global market sales team.

‘’Thanks to this organisation and our leading position on securitisation markets, we can screen all available possibilities for any specific need and select the best solution both in terms of risk transfer and costs for the bank,’’ says Bancal.

He continues: ‘’We also keep a continuous and transparent dialogue with our supervisor and regulator, which helps us navigate a regulatory environment that has not yet fully stabilised.’’

Over time, the French lender has developed a variety of solutions on an increasing number of asset classes - ranging from full-stack SRTs for auto and consumer loans, to funded and unfunded synthetic securitisations for corporates, SMEs and more esoteric assets such as CQS loans or capital call facilities.

Moreover, following the Resonance Five transaction in 2020, BNP Paribas has further leveraged its strong internal franchise on credit insurance hedges, to execute synthetic securitisations with several credit insurers and reinsurers.

The Wagner transaction was a notable example in this respect. Wagner A and B feature a combined €2.5bn portfolio of capital call facilities directed at five different insurance investors in the mezzanine and upper mezzanine tranches, as well as some funded investors on the lower mezzanine tranches. The synthetic securitisation was finalised in June 2021.

Honourable mention: Barclays

Barclays has been one of the most active capital relief trade issuers of the last year, having closed 11 CRT transactions, representing approximately US$1.35bn of equity tranches and US$17.5bn of portfolio notional. Issuance was matched by innovation, as evidenced by the addition of commercial real estate loans into the Colonnade programme and the execution of two synthetic securitisations referencing a £4.1bn portfolio of social housing loans under the newly launched Churchill risk transfer programme for Barclays’ ringfenced entity BUK. The transaction was also the bank’s first ESG-related risk-sharing transaction.