The European Securitisation Forum has published reporting guidelines for the continental residential mortgage-backed securities market as part of a plan to bring a greater degree of transparency to the European market. The guidelines cover a set of definitions about fields, dealing with data such as securitized collateral and the loan-level information, and have involved the collective input of investors, traders, issuers and servicers, said Marco Angheben, associate director.

Residential mortgage securitization is the most important asset class in Europe, in terms of issuance size, accounting for 45% of the market last year.

Angheben said the market will be enhanced by the ability of investors to use the guidelines to compare deals, adding they will be particularly helpful for investors involved in Eastern European and emerging market transactions. He conceded there has been friction between bankers and issuers on the amount of information available, although a compromise had been reached between the two factions. "Investors want as much information as they can get, but that's not always possible," he said.

One issue was the reporting of delinquencies. "The conclusion we reached is to ask the issuers to explain their definitions of delinquencies and offer that to investors. Sometimes they are 30 days, sometimes only 1 day, sometimes 59. It's all different," Angheben said.

Rick Watson, managing director, said a key challenge is to ensure the guidelines are used. "The impact won't be instantly visible, but we want to encourage lawyers and ratings agencies to work these guidelines into documents from various companies and issuers. If you have consistency then you can compare deals better," he said.