Kookmin Card, one of Korea's largest credit card companies in which Kookmin Bank holds a 74.27% interest, has sent out requests for proposals RFPs to a surprisingly large number of investment banks for its first public cross-border securitization, expected later this year.
Sixteen banks - ABN Amro, Bank of America, Bank One, BNP Paribas, Citibank, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Salomon Smith Barney, SG and UBS Warburg - have been approached by Kookmin, a record according to some bankers that have worked in the Asian securitization business for many years.
The competition is already fierce for what is a relatively small number of mandates...
