Securitization and Structured Finance Post Credit Crunch: A Best Practice Deal Lifecycle Guide

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Introduction

1.1 SETTING THE SCENE: ABOUT THIS BOOK

First of all—and before I forget: Thank you for buying this book.—I much appreciate your interest and curiosity.

As the subtitle of this book implies, we will be taking a close look at a securitization and structured finance “deal”. But, hang on a minute, there are so many different deals out there, spanning across many different asset classes as well as jurisdictions, so why are we looking at one “deal”?

The answer is simple: Our starting point for this journey is a generic deal, with no particular focus on asset class, deal structure, or jurisdiction. Based on the generics, I will guide you through along the way and would hope to develop your understanding so that you are equipped with the right tools, are able to ask the right questions, and consequently receive the appropriate answers.

Thinking about this introduction, I realized that there is really no such structured finance or securitization “college” or “university” course out there that would equip practitioners with the necessary tools and skills to just go away and structure or manage a deal throughout the transaction’s lifecycle for their firms. Clearly, there are many independent providers of courses (including more recently the rating agencies themselves), but with those courses being more theoretical in nature and typically only lasting a short duration (i.e., 2 to 5 days), don’t expect to walk away as a qualified structurer, underwriter, rating agency analyst, ...