Securitisation picks up speed

India's structured finance business ground to a halt earlier in 2006 after the introduction of the country's first securitisation guidelines. But with the changes now digested, new issuers are coming to market, finds Sarfraz Thind

India's banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India, passed the final draft of its new securitisation law in February 2006. Following three years of exponential growth, market participants had been awaiting the guidelines, which they viewed as the 'rubber stamp' on future growth. Yet far from boosting volumes, the new rules halted activity altogether. Securitisation issuance - which had jumped from 20 billion rupees ($450 million) in 2002 to more than Rs250 billion in 2005, according to Indian