7/6/2026
Good morning, UK productivity is expected to take a severe hit today as millions stayed awake until around 4am to watch England’s heroic World Cup victory over Mexico in the Azteca Stadium. But fear not, dear reader, for your Freshly Squeezed writer is made of sterner stuff (and he also slept through the majority of the game).
Last week in European ABS was once again strong with over €4bn placed with investors (approx. €1.2bn was pre-placed), but there are signs that we’re now approaching the traditional summer slowdown.
Firstly, book builds are taking much longer. The vast majority of recent new issues notices are arriving the week prior to pricing as investors need that little bit of extra time. Indeed, Santander’s Spanish consumer ABS – the €1.845bn Santander Consumo 11 FT had a number of its hefty mezzanine tranches less than 1x covered when the first book update arrived.
It was never an issue or suggestive of apprehension from investors. It was merely a case of time, exacerbated by the fact that the offered mezzanine classes B, C, E and F were €355.5m in total.
Meanwhile, Auto1 Group’s latest German and Austrian auto ABS, the €254.5m FinanceHero 3 took over three weeks to price having hit screens on June 17th. Marketing alongside Ford’s German auto undoubtably slowed things somewhat, but it’s the sort of thing that can happen in the summer.
This week, there are seven deals in the pipeline – six of which are due to price this week. Again, illustrating how the arranging banks believe you’ll need seven days minimum to build your books. It would not be surprising if one or two of those trades extend their timelines to the following week either.
Last week, we wrote about how a previously unremarkable, broadly pre-placed Spanish consumer ABS from Banco Sabadell was actually an innovative use-of-proceeds transaction aimed at supporting the EU’s policy goals in financing green projects and SMEs that help in defence-related infrastructure.
This week, we noticed that the Santander Consumo 11 FT trade also had a chunk of pre-placement from the EU (via the European Investment Fund). The EIF took on the €400m Class A2’s and while the full details have not been announced, this transaction becomes the first European “SAFE ABS” – SAFE an acronym for the Security Action For Europe project, which is an exceptional financial instrument providing up to €150bn in loans to help EU Member States rapidly scale their defence investments.
An exciting development, but we await further details from the EIF.
Santander has returned to the Spanish consumer ABS market with the eleventh deal from its eponymous programme and its second of 2026. Not since BBVA's Consumer ABS in February had a comparable trade hit screens that was fully offered to the market. Despite heavy deal flow for the three prior weeks since Global ABS and a booming broader Euro-denominated Consumer ABS primary market, Santander leads were still entering a positive issuance environment. Indeed, a core theme of the year is how the most established issuers have been rewarded for their longstanding participation in ABS. A slightly sluggish opening to the book build may have caused a few jitters but investors simply needed a bit of time to digest before Santander Consumo 11 roared through the market...click here to read the full overview on Concept ABS.
With the post-Barcelona rush still evolving, Euro primary market ABS placement of E57.5bn (excl. Consumo 11) is already north of last year's halfway mark (2025 was a record post credit crunch year for placement). Nonetheless, unlike the Sterling market which is starting to labour under the wight of supply, the Euro bid remains buoyant. Indeed, recent deals have boasted impressive coverage across the stack and spreads continue to tighten. Meanwhile, the consumer ABS asset class continues to attract the eye after a couple of years of record post-GFC sales. In excess of E9bn has been sold YTD and absorbed with minimal fuss – well on course to bust past the E14.71bn record mark set in 2025. In other words, a receptive market for the first fully offered Spanish Consumer ABS since February – further boosted by the Iran war ceasefire.
However, there have been some signs more broadly that investors are either in need of a breather or now need a little more time to digest the supply (a recent French prime rmbs labouring at the triple-A level – providing a rare note of caution). Undemanding IPTs hit screens...click here to read the full market context on Concept ABS.
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