I was encouraged to see Virgin Money announce its second securitisation of the year, Gosforth 2012-2, particularly so as Virgin Money is also one of the 30 or so banks that have now signed up to the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme.

The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) was introduced by the Bank of England back in July to reduce funding costs for banks and building societies to stimulate lending to UK households and small businesses. Under the scheme, between August 2012 and January 2014 any participating bank or building society can borrow UK Treasury Bills for a 4-year period in exchange for providing eligible collateral as security. Broadly speaking, the eligible collateral will include certain loans, securities and other assets also eligible under the Bank of England’s Discount Window Facility. The costs to participating banks and building societies for this lending depends on how much lending they do into the real economy but can be as low as 0.25% per year. If this results in banks lending more to the real economy at better rates and borrowers have the appetite to take on such debt sufficiently to make a noticeable impact, then that’s great …. mostly.
Continue Reading Securitisation: a nationalised pastime?