ABS issuance soars in 2015 on new state loan program

The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea nearly doubled in 2015 from a year earlier on the back of sharp growth in sales of government-led mortgage funds, the financial watchdog said Wednesday.

A combined 83 trillion won ($68.1 billion) worth of ABS were issued last year, up 99.8 percent from the previous year's 41.5 trillion won according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

ABSs are derived from underlying assets such as auto loans, home loans, credit card receivables and student loans.

The surge came as the Korea Housing Finance Corp., the state-run mortgage agency, largely scaled up its mortgage-backed securities (MBS), a type of ABS, in line with the government's policy to help borrowers convert their short-term floating-rate loans into longer, fixed-rate ones.

The new loan program launched in late March with a goal to tackle snowballing household credit.

A total of 55.8 trillion won worth of MBS was issued by the agency last year, more than triple the previous year's 14.5 trillion won, according to the FSS.

ABS issuance by local financial firms inched up to 19 trillion won in 2015 from 18.8 trillion won in 2014, while non-financial firms issued 8.2 trillion won worth of ABS last year, slightly up from 8 trillion won in 2014 according to the FSS. (Yonhap)