Time is fast running out for the UK ABS market to eke out its last few trades before year-end. The sterling market surely has no hope of matching FY2024 volumes of €36bn, but deals are still coming thick and fast this November. Nevertheless, 2025 YTD issuance remains about €10bn shy of last year.

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Last week saw Plata Finance, Paratus and Equifinance all get deals over the line. But it seems that broader concerns over the health of the UK economy and uncertainty over the Chancellor’s budget at the end of the month are conspiring to make placing ABS akin to walking through treacle. It’s possible, but it’s not very pleasant.

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The larger accounts at the top of the cap stack appear particularly difficult to keep happy. Paratus AMC’s third edition of Braccan since its debut just over 12 months ago was only 1.2x covered on its £342.5mClass A’s.

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Similarly, Equifinance’s non-conforming RMBS had tempting IPTs at 100bps over Sonia, but still couldn’t get demand to budge beyond 1.5xcovered. As a result, the leads couldn’t turn the screw more than a few notchesand its Class A’s landed at 97bps over.

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However, Plata Finance’s second consumer ABS of the year, the £245m Asimi Funding 2025-2 was able to drum up strong demand, and deliver a much better execution compared to its May issue, when tariff-issues rather scuppered things.

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The £153m Class A’s were 3.4x covered, and the leads managed to tighten 8bps from IPTs to land at 82bps over Sonia. That’s 13bps tighter than Asimi 2025-1 too.

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Normally, you’d caveat those figures by saying that placing£150m is a hell of a lot easier than £500m-plus, but Equifinance was only offering £208m, while Braccan’s £342m is not enormous. No doubt that £200mextra from Paratus would have had an impact though.

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Perhaps for this week atleast, we can call Plata Finance the pound for pound king!

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Looking ahead in the UK, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that was primarily that, at least until December with the Chancellor’s budget on November 26 looming, but there is still an outstanding UK Data Centre tap and new issue from Vantage.

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Meanwhile in euros, BNP Paribas’ first German Autonoria since 2023 continued the strong run of results we’ve seen in euro issuance, and German autos, this year.

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The €650m trade retained half of its €594.7m AAAs, and while by German Auto standards that’s not loads of paper to sell, we’re still in mid-November and the end of a record run for the asset class.

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By this time of year, it’s easy to find yourself caught out in a market that’s just had enough of whatever it is you’re offering, but books were 1.7x covered and tightened from mid-50s over 1-month Euribor to 51bpsover. The remaining €55m or so in mezzanine tranches all tightened as well.

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In mid-November, we have once again seen the strength of theeuro ABS market.

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ARC News: Yet another ERM trade and a £5.3m investment

Finally, and I suppose selfishly, there is a fair bit of ARC-related news to cover.

Firstly, ARC Ratings has released its latest rating report of yet another equity release mortgage securitization. The deal is a touch smaller than others we’ve seen this year at £130.5m, while the portfolio was originated by More2Life, Aviva and Scottish Widows.

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To see the rating report, click here.

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And last but definitely not least, you may have seen that ARC Analytics has completed a £5.3m investment into a leading RegTech company, which is to be known henceforth as ARC Comply. It was formerly, Tulipa Machines. Read more about it here.

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There is a structured finance angle to ARC Comply as well, as the team there are building out products that can help with securitization-related compliance. Really exciting times for us, already having conversations with some of the biggest players in finance.

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So, watch this space! For more information visit arccomply.com or fill in a contact form on ARC Analytics, here.

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Final Word

That’s all from me this week.

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I mistakenly said last week that I’m moderating a panel at the LSEG UK Securitization Summit on November 13. It is in fact tomorrow, November 18 – so please do come on by for what should be a great afternoon.

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Have a great week,

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Tom

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