As noted earlier, ABCP was primarily designed to acquire and fund trade receivables of larger corporations. However, as the product evolved over time, the collateral composition shifted heavily into investing in financial instruments. Today, ABCP conduits invest in all possible financial instruments such as
collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)
43 lease receivables, and corporate loans.
To see this, consider that in 1993 the assets of conduits according to a Moody’s report authored by Rutan and Berthelon (2007) consisted of the following:
Trade and term receivables: 60% Credit card receivables: 12% Corporate loans: 12%
and the balance in other assets.
Fast forward 13 years to June 2006. U.S. multiseller conduits held the following assets according to Moody’s:
Trade receivables: 13% Credit cards: 15% Commercial loans: 11% Auto loans: 10% Securities: 9% Mortgage warehousing lines and other mortgage investments: 9% Highly rated CDOs: 3%
and the balance in other assets.