Draghi ABS Revival Depends on Regulators Defining Simple
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The European Central Bank is gearing up to buy “simple, transparent and real” asset-backed debt. The success of its bid to breathe life into the market will depend on how regulators from Basel to Brussels define those terms.
President Mario Draghi said last month that ECB purchases of asset-backed securities “would lead to a reconstruction of a market that has disappeared with the crisis,” and that’s why they will focus on products that are easy to price. The ECB, whose Governing Council meets this week, may start buying ABS as part of a quantitative-easing program aimed at shoring up a euro-area economy that’s edging closer to deflation.