Registered Asset-Backed Securities Drop 5.7 Percent in the Third Quarter
South Korea’s registered asset-backed securities (ABS) issuance fell to 12.51 trillion won in the third quarter of 2024, marking a 5.7% decrease compared to the same period last year, kr.investing.com reported. Financial Supervisory Service data shows the total dropped by 7555억원 year-over-year, driven by steep declines in real estate project financing and non-performing loan foundations.
Registered ABS issued against real estate project financing plummeted to 200억원 in the third quarter, dropping 98.3% from 1조1988억원 during the same period in 2023. Financial regulators attribute this sharp contraction to a high base effect following increased guarantees from the Korea Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation last year. Non-performing loan foundation ABS also fell 11.4% to 1조6644억원 from 1조8786억원.
Card Receivables and Mortgage Securities Offset Declines
Credit card receivable ABS surged 142.2% to 3조496억원, lifting the sector’s share of total registered ABS issuance from 9.5% to 24.4%. Housing mortgage-backed securities rose 13.0% to 5.77 trillion won. Cumulative registered ABS issuance for the first nine months of the year reached 39.1 trillion won, marking a 14.0% increase over the amount recorded in the first three quarters of the previous year.
Unregistered Market Handles Sixty Trillion Won in Project Financing
Unregistered asset-backed markets outpaced the registered sector significantly, recording 182.99 trillion won in total issuance during the third quarter. Real estate project financing accounted for 60.7 trillion won, or 33.2% of that total. Asset-backed short-term bonds made up 49조4931억원, representing 81.5% of the unregistered property financing instruments, alongside 10조4268억원 in asset-backed commercial paper and 789.2 billion won in asset-backed bonds.