Chinatrust Commercial Bank has finally launched its NT$5 billion $146 million mortgage securitization, 10 months after becoming the first to win regulatory approval. Since then two other residential mortgage-backed deals have closed while Chinatrust has sat on the sidelines.
But Chinatrust's deal, according to Patrick Kaye at arrangers Lehman Brothers, is a more significant transaction than the two earlier deals, from First Commercial and Taishin International, respectively arranged by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. Both offered a coupon based on the adjustable rate mortgage Arms index, which is not commonly used to price anything other than mortgages and is not hedgeable.
The Chinatrust deal, on the other...