The award reflected a broad spread of deals, both geographically and by asset type. The new issues it completed in the Netherlands, Spain and the UK over the year ranged across Prime RMBS (eight transactions), non-standard prime RMBS (three) and buy-to-let RMBS (one).
Moreover, BNPP achieved the coup of selection as the UK government’s sole arranger on last year’s two jumbo Durham Mortgages transactions.
The £2.65bn and £2.25bn deals securitized loans by Bradford & Bingley, Mortgage Express and GMAC-RFC. The larger ‘A’ issue packaged non-conforming residential loans of the first two originators, while the ‘B’ issue is based on BTL loans made by the latter two.
The firm recently underlined its strength in UK RMBS by appointment as the only non-US lead manager on the sector’s first new issue of the new year — Clydesdale Bank’s Lanark 2019-1.
Strong showing
Market participants hail the firm’s performance. “BNP Paribas supported us with excellent service in our last transaction and has completed a significant amount of transactions this last year,” notes one European issuer.
“BNP have been consistently involved in the market throughout 2018 and have provided insightful market information on an ongoing basis. The team offers excellent advice and support for issuers,” adds another.
This strong showing reflected both the firm’s broad securitization capabilities and a more recent stepping-up of its performance. One issuer cites BNPP as the market’s “biggest turnaround of the activity in the last few years” while praising its “talented staff” and judging it as the market’s “most active bank”.
The firm also wins recognition from investors, both for its origination effort in the product and its sales and trading service. “They have always received good feedback from the investor community,” judges one specialist investor.
“BNP Paribas is a leading firm, with a very efficient origination-trading-distribution platform. My salesperson is an ABS specialist and gives me all the important information on flows and news. He has followed me for a long time, even if he has nothing to sell, and tries to be objective all the time,” adds an ABS portfolio manager.
