The AOFM has called on potential users of its proposed "forbearance special purpose vehicle" to provide more information. The Office of Financial Management and the Australian Securitisation Forum have been working out ways to mitigate the impact of payments deferrals due to COVID-19 hardship on smaller lenders.

As we reported previously, the idea of the forbearance SPV is to advance funds to eligible securitisation trusts and warehouses that wish to draw liquidity advances to compensate for the deferred interest component of scheduled payments.

The AOFM has now called on the smaller lenders to provide information "in order to identify required detail in support of arrangements for prospective draws for interest forbearance and operational matters with regards to using the Forbearance SPV", the Commonwealth Government's financial management agency stated yesterday.

That is, the AOFM is seeking expressions of interest "from SFSF eligible lenders," differentiating these from the "previously requested Expressions of Interest relating more broadly to the SFSF".

Lenders submitting a Forbearance SPV Expression of Interest should indicate:

• their specific interest in using the forbearance SPV;• the number of related trusts expected to access the program; and• the asset type and assets under management for each Trust, the weighted average interest rate on assets for each trust, the number and volume of assets currently in COVID-19 hardship for each trust and the number and volume of assets currently in 30+ and 90+ days arrears for each trust.

The request for further details yesterday, the AOFM promised that "supply of this information will not constitute a formal application for use of the SPV, nor will it constitute acceptance into gaining access to support from the forbearance SPV."