The lender recently completed a £200 million securitisation of residential mortgages, its first in the mortgage market, to Landmark Mortgage Securities No 1 PLC, and it believed the residential securitisation market would grow by 50 per cent by 2008.
However, it said the recent downgrade of one lender’s credit rating had resulted in a knock-on effect on the rest of the market.
Matt Gilmour, chief executive officer at Infinity Mortgages, said: “We are proud to have executed this transaction in a market that has received a great deal of additional scrutiny following the recent credit downgrade of a non-conforming security. We pre-empted that we would be under fire to defend ourselves as a first-time issuer yet proved ourselves to capital markets investors so they felt their investment was safe with us.”
While Infinity experienced these concerns with its first transaction, other securitisation lenders were less worried.
Bob Sturges, director of communications at Money Partners, said: “We naturally took note of market comment following the recent ratings downgrading of a competitor’s transaction, and can see why this has led to increased scrutiny of similar transactions. However, we do not believe the circumstances that caused this are typical of the specialist sector, and do not see it adversely affecting the prospects of the market in the medium to long-term.”
Jonathan Naylor, managing director at Rooftop Mortgages, added: “Speaking to investors, the common theme is they want more information but I don’t think this represents caution.
"But they are looking for more information to make a valid judgement.”
