ME Bank back in RMBS market
ME Bank plans to refinance another tranche of home loans as residential mortgage-backed securities, its second in two weeks and, like the first, a transaction that will not depend on investment support from the Australian government.The bank will sell $500 million of prime RMBS, Insto and Reuters reported. This time the sale will be under the SMHL Securitisation Fund 2009-2, which if in line with past transactions under this label means the loans were directly originated by the bank.The earlier financing, for $255 million of securities from the bank's Maxis program, included broker-originated loans. ME Bank sold those securities at 175 basis points over bank bills, with demand from investors for twice this amount.Preliminary pricing of the top rated tranche of this SMHL offer is around 150 basis points over the one-month bank bill swap rate, according to an investor looking at the offer, Reuters reported.As the bank most dependent on the machinery of securitisation prior to the credit shock, ME Bank has more incentive than other lenders to work with investors on reviving the market.