(South Korea) – Total issuance in South Korea’s structured finance market, particularly cross-border securitisations, is expected to demonstrate good growth in 2002 as the sector exceeds its US$1.76 billion deal flow in 2001 through a keen appetite by monolines for Korean consumer assets, according to rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).S&P believe domestic investors who have avoided unsecured corporate issuances in a concern with credit quality will continue to invest in structured bonds for reasons of transparency stable performance. Foreign investors, interested in cross-border transactions are expressing growing interest in South Korea’s securitisation market.
Transaction expertise and experience gained by both domestic and international players have reached a critical mass, enabling transactions to close quickly, in S&P’s view.
The country’s securitisation market was led in 2001 by consumer asset-backed securities, including credit card and card loans, transactions that are driven by Government policy looking to provide funding to companies that cannot access bank credit easily.