* Merrill Lynch gave European investors a welcome taste of US asset backed product this week, with a $411.98m auto loan deal for Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America, and underlined the inward march of ABS spreads. Mitsubishi Auto Owners Trust 1999-1 offered four sequentially amortising tranches of fixed rate bonds with top ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's. With average lives of 0.33, 0.99, 1.68 and 2.56 years, the classes were priced at 4bp over four month Libor, 38bp over 12 month Libor, and 85bp and 93bp over Treasuries.
January 15, 1999