ABS issuance sinks 31.8 pct in Q3

SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- The issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) in South Korea sank 38.1 percent in the third quarter of this year from a year earlier, due to a drop in sales of mortgage funds, the financial watchdog said Sunday.

A combined 7.8 trillion won (US$7.37 billion) worth of ABS were issued in the July-September period, compared with 11.5 trillion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

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

For the first nine months of the year, ABS issuance stood at 141.3 trillion won, down 3.8 percent from a year ago.

The quarterly decline came as the Korea Housing Finance Corp. (KHFC) scaled back issuances of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), a type of ABS, the FSS said.

The KHFC, the state-run mortgage agency, which sells long-term fixed-rate mortgage funds as part of a policy effort to support the financially weak, reduced its MBS issuance 57.8 percent to 2.7 trillion won from 6.3 trillion won over the three-month period.

ABS issuance by local financial firms fell 4.1 percent on-year to 3.8 trillion won, down from 3.9 trillion, while non-financial companies issued 1.5 trillion won worth of ABSs over the citied period, up 11.1 percent from a year ago.

brk@yna.co.kr
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