Today, the ASF held a ‘Town Hall’ meeting to thank members for their on-going support and to update them on recent ASF led initiatives.  The ASF remains focussed on developing options to restore the nation’s credit system so that it works to support economic recovery and stems the effects of the downturn.

ASF Chairman, Stuart Fuller, explained that the ASF’s job was to help to restore market and investor confidence in the credit markets and the flow of credit to the economy, with a focus on securitisation, through a number of carefully-developed and targeted initiatives.

Parliament, Treasury, AOFM and Treasury ministers have all received ASF delegations and representations established to help policymakers understand the Australian securitisation story. Our next step is to move from an options platform to a package of recommendations that the Government and regulators can consider as it seeks to restore the loss of credit created by the freeze in global and local credit and securitisation markets.

ASF CEO, Chris Dalton, re-iterated that the ASF’s three-fold mandate of education, consensus and advocacy would continue to well-position Australia just as it had historically and noted that, “although our work is far from finished, ASF has accomplished a great deal in a short period of time, making the following recent submissions:

• IOSCO consultation on the regulation of unregulated markets (‘TFUMP’)
• National Consumer Protection Bill
• Unfair Contracts
• Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies
• Octaviar case impact
• Personal Property Securities reform
• GST working group

“Over the next couple of weeks, the ASF will be releasing its policy position and engaging with government and regulators following its commissioning of Access Economics to perform independent and authoritative research on the effects of and possible securitisation solutions to the dislocation in credit markets. Covered bonds - a form of securitisation - will also be recommended to Government following the development of a comprehensive legislative framework for Australia with the objective of helping Australian banks compete for international wholesale funding,” he said.

For further details of the above initiatives and submissions please visit: www.securitisation.com.au