Negative Euribor erodes securitisation profits

Implicit floors in notes leave originators facing cost of negative rates on hundreds of tranches

Profits shredded: negative rates equals pricier hedges and no ability to pass on costs

Negative interest rates are eating away at the profitability of structured finance transactions, as originators find themselves paying more for their interest rate swap hedges but are unable to recoup the costs from noteholders.

Asset-backed securities (ABSs) tend to pay noteholders a floating rate coupon, and so include fixed-to-floating interest rate swaps to hedge the fixed-rate mortgages in the underlying pool. In Europe, the swap's floating rate cashflows reference Euribor. But with the ref