Europe needs securitization, says AFME

Policy makers must learn to love securitization again, else the real economy will suffer, suggests Rick Watson, head of capital markets at the European industry body. Rick Watson, head of capital markets at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, says the securitisation market is finally coming back following the post-financial crisis backlash. Yet he remains cautious over the speed and scale of recovery. A “fundamental” question, he suggests, still hangs over whether policy makers and regulators will shrug off associations with US sub-prime and complex collaterized debt obligations and learn to embrace the model again. “The securitization market will always exist in some form,” he says. “The question is will this be a mainstream product?