ECB still coy on ABS buying details

摘要

The ECB did not provide the answers the ABS market wanted in terms of what, when and how it would go about purchasing bonds, but the bigger picture has become clearer. Mario Draghi last week said the ECB would "soon start to purchase asset-backed securities", without farther elaboration. However, the intention to have a balance sheet of the same size as March 2012 suggests the ECB will embark on a €ltrn expansion using various tools at its disposal. "It is clearer that it is less about credit easing and more about quantity. This suggests the ECB will be more aggressive in covered bond and ABS buying while price discussions will become secondary in nature," said Ruben van Leeuwen, an ABS analyst at Rabobank.