[2008.09.13] 有资产抵押证券：源自普鲁士之爱

Covered bonds
有资产抵押证券

From Prussia with love
源自普鲁士之爱

Sep 11th 2008
From The Economist print edition

An ancient debt instrument may help America after Fannie and Freddie.
房利美和房地美之后，古老的债务证券或许能够帮助美国。

FROM Freddie Mac to Frederick the Great? Fannie Mae and its brother are the central pillars of America’s mortgage market. Their role has become even more important during the credit crisis, thanks to the moribund private-securitisation market (see chart). If they were eventually to disappear, what might take their place? One alternative is covered bonds-Prussia’s legacy to modern finance.
从房地美到腓特烈大帝？房利美和房地美是美国抵押贷款市场的中流砥柱。在信贷危机期间，由于私营证券化市场严重萎缩，因此他们的角色变得更为重要。如果两房最终消失，那么谁将取代他们？选择之一就是有资产抵押证券–普鲁士对现代金融的遗产。

First issued by the German kingdom in 1770, covered bonds have grown into a $3 trillion asset class, dominated by issuers in Europe. The instrument is a form of senior debt that is paid back from the issuer’s cash flows but is also secured against a ring-fenced pool of assets, such as mortgage loans, in the event of default. That makes it safer than unsecured debt. But covered bonds also offer more protection to investors than asset-backed securities, because the issuer retains the credit risk, rather than securitising it away, and must also keep the cover pool up to snuff by replacing non-performing loans with performing ones. For extra safety, the pool contains more collateral than the value of the bond.
有资产抵押证券由普鲁士王国于1770年首次发行，如今它已经发展成为具有3万亿美元规模的资产类型，主要由欧洲的发行者所控制。这种证券是优先债务形式的一种，发行者需要用自己的现金流来偿还，并且要有一定隔离的资产池作为保障，比如说抵押贷款,以免发生不能履行责任的情况。这就使得它比其它无担保债务更加安全。同时，相比其它资产担保证券，它也能为投资者提供更多的保护，因为有资产抵押证券是由发行者保留信贷风险，而不是将其证券化，同时它必须保证用来替代不良资产的健康资产能够达到弥补所发行证券规模的标准。为了使其更具安全性，资产池中有抵押的债券要比普通债券价值大。

The attractions to policymakers in America are obvious. For jittery investors, these are instruments that offer safer exposure to America’s mortgage market. For issuers, the costs of funding are lower than raising unsecured debt, and issuance does not depend on the revival of the securitisation markets. Only two covered bonds have been issued in America to date, both of them before the crunch, but a concerted effort is under way to kick-start things.
有资产抵押证券对美国政策制定者的吸引是明显的。对那些战战兢兢的投资者来说，这种证券工具能为美国抵押信贷市场提供一个更加安全的方向。对发行者来说，有资产抵押证券的成本要比筹集无担保债务低的多，同时它的发行不依赖于证券市场的复苏。到目前为止，只有两支此类证券在美国发行，并且都是在信贷危机前，但是一支协议中的证券正在启动中。

In July Hank Paulson, America’s ubiquitous treasury secretary, unveiled a set of stringent guidelines detailing what kind of mortgage collateral can be used to secure the bonds. In tandem, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have announced plans to issue covered bonds. According to Tim Skeet at Merrill Lynch, the first issues could well happen before the end of the year.
七月，美国财政部长保尔森公布了一整套严格的指导方针，明细了什么样的抵押资产可以用以担保债券安全。紧跟着，美国银行、花旗集团、摩根大通和富国银行都宣布了发行有资产抵押债券的计划。美林证券的Tim Skeet表示，第一支证券的发行可以在年底之前完成。

It is too soon to say how big the market might eventually be. There are several constraints on growth. The most obvious are regulatory. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is responsible for reimbursing depositors when banks fail, does not want its claims on assets to be subordinated to others and has (initially) capped covered-bond issuance at just 4% of banks’ liabilities. Strict criteria on what assets can be used in the cover pool are necessary to reassure investors, but will leave many mortgage loans out in the cold.
预测这个市场最终会有多大还为时尚早。有几个因素会限制它的发展。最明显的就是监管。联邦存款保险公司（它的职责是当银行破产时，偿还存款人的存款）可不想让那些由他主张权利的资产被纳入到其它担保中，并且设定了有资产抵押债券发行的上限,为其银行负债的4%。关于可放入资金池的担保资产类型的严格标准对于安抚投资者来说是必要的，但同时会使很多抵押借款遭到排斥。

The markets are another source of uncertainty. Promoting the merits of a new mortgage-backed debt instrument is not the easiest sell at the moment. Issuers might find that other sources of funding, such as advances from America’s 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, are cheaper. Moreover, keeping mortgages on the books, rather than securitising them, means that banks have to deal with headaches like “prepayment risk”, when mortgage borrowers refinance their policies and fail to generate the expected return. “Anything that helps to open up the mortgage market is a good thing at this point,” says Sharon Haas of Fitch, a rating agency. Just do not expect Prussian-style dominance.
市场可能是另一个不确定因素。在当前的环境下，对于一种新的有抵押支持债券价值的推销可不是一个容易的买卖。发行者可能会发现其它来源的债券，比如说美国12家联邦家庭贷款银行的贷款更加便宜。除此之外，当抵押借款人为其项目再融资或者不能产生预期的回报时，使抵押证券载入名册而不是将其证券化意味着银行不得不处理诸如”预付风险”之类令人头痛的问题。评级机构惠誉的Sharon Haas表示，”在这个节点上，任何有助于开发抵押信贷市场的行动都是一件好事情。” 只是不要希望会出现普鲁士式的主宰。

译者：jyjnl     http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=14053&extra=page%3D1