The asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market, which started modestly as a way for banks to move assets off their balance sheet, using special purpose vehicles known as conduits, is today among the most innovative and complex financial sectors, often supporting entirely synthetic transactions.But its very success is arousing concern among some close observers. The market's role in shifting risk, often to exploit anomalies in the regulatory treatment of the banks' capital, looks distinctly uncertain when the rules change in three years time under current proposals.
It is not a matter of how, but of when. A major cross-border bank merger in Europe involving core countries is imminent. Investment banks are busy advising their clients on possible deals, bank chief executives are flying back and forth having talks with their counterparts and lawyers are looking at the legal implications.