Securitization - The hidden gem of IB?

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share my personal experience as an intern within Securitization for a few months. Headed into the internship not really knowing anything about it, but left holding the group in high regards.

For those of you who don't know, securitization is where asset-backed securities are structured, typically from things like auto loans, credit card receivables, or mortgages. Yes, relevant group for the housing market and crash from approx. 10 years ago.

To cut to the good stuff:

  • Hours are FAR less than M&A or other areas of IB. Working 10.5-12 hours a day is the norm, occasionally having to put in a couple hours extra.
  • Pay is typically in line with DCM, which is typically in line with IB (or just a slight paycut)
  • Much more modeling than DCM due to needing to understand the underlying assets and performance of those assets
  • Market is smaller than traditional DCM, typically means smaller team and flatter structure

For those of you who like a mixture of following the markets as well as modeling, this might just be the group for you. Given how little you hear about this group, if you were to reach out and network, you would likely have a much larger chance at success if you actually do your research and show up prepared.

Work at the analyst level is very similar to the other groups - pitching, research, pitching, comps, analysis, and pitching some more. Many people from my group have put 1-2 years in and leveraged the experience to end up elsewhere, so you're definitely not pigeon-holed.

Just wanted to get this out there for those of you who maybe haven't heard of some of the more niche groups within IB. Glad to answer any questions that anyone may have.

84 Comments
 
Best Response
"Grimloge"

What time do you normally get in? How are you bonuses, relative to other groups? Do you find the work interesting (it has to get kind of repetitive over time), what are your exit opps?

Normally got in at 8AM, about half an hour after the core DCM guys and I want to say 1-2 hours after the traders.

Bonus was 30-100% of base, so I want to say in line with other groups. But I was merely an intern so I didn't exactly go around asking everyone about their comp.

I think all work gets repetitive over time, but overall I'd say it was interesting. The work seemed comparable to M&A except less business-specific research and modeling. Still lots of client and investor communication, presentation preparation, and analysis to do though. Exit opps within 1-2 years will be pretty much anywhere within the bank. Many went to traditional IB groups or DCM, I believe some even went into trading. You can always exit to some of the larger companies who have their own in house securitization team.

If you stick around to associate or higher I imagine you risk labeling yourself as a securitization person and you may be a bit more limited in terms of exit opps, however, at that point you're working 55-65 hour weeks and making solid money so who's complaining?

 

I'd put JPM,GS,CS over both of them but maybe I'm biased. I think across the board it's falls under S&T because usually you sit on trading desks. It's good though because you have exposure to a lot of different groups like OP said lot of collab with DCM, FI desks. Hours are same as trading but have the variability with projects and meeting deadlines you see in banking.

 

I'm interested to hear more just out of curiousity. I had to work on a project that involved some of the more obscure securities (SFRs) in a credit context so anything related to the issue is interesting to me.

Here's my question for what you guys do: as far as the day to day work, what is the balance in terms of knowledge requirements between corporate finance type skills (ala IBD) and market analysis and research skills ( as in S&T)?

 

I'm on the trading side of abs not so much pure structuring but I'll say what I can. Most structured/securitzed products groups have 3 main responsibilities. I'd say for all 3 the balance is maybe 60/40 65/35 in favor of S&T skillset for average day to day, OP can confirm? Some of the modeling and IB type stuff will just be done by those groups that you are working with. I've learned that DCM guys are clutch. 1. Financing 2. Originate new loans (CLOs) 3. Investor products (Partially funded products like leveraged notes)

 

In my experience I'd have to disagree with guggroth93 on this one and say it's kinda the opposite. In my group there wasn't very much market analysis and research unless a new initiative was being taken (as in introduce new type of product) or if a deal was pricing soon. Majority of the time was spent doing IB-relevant tasks (modeling, presentations, client communications).

 

I would be interested in hearing more about the type of modeling you guys are doing, obviously a lot of cash flow stuff but how are defaults accounted for. Do you work with master servicers at all?

 

IMO, BAML, Citi, JPM and WFS are very active in a lot of the more generic stuff - think balance sheet banks (I cover a lot of consumer ABS so not as sure about MBS). Other notable names, particularly in the esoteric space - Guggenheim, GS, and Barclays. Guggenheim is well known for being one of the leaders in the esoteric space, and most of the deals I see them on are quite interesting.

 

have a first round interview with JPM Asset Backed Securitization Originations team and wanted to get some context on the group and what might be expected to be known for technicals etc.

 

So whats the difference between a structurer and securitizer (for the lack of a better word) ?

"The markets are always changing , and they are always the same."
 

Can confirm - worked this past summer at a BB in securitization as well.

It's a great product, smaller community (everyone knows everyone in the space), bunch of hopping around from one bank to the other or from the banks to the buy-side firms. At my specific banks it fell within S&T but at the same time sat closest to the banking guys (being private side).

Less hours than the banking team, I think bonus is slightly smaller, can't talk about higher up the pole, but I can say it's a niche product so going from structured credit to Bx or KKR PE probably won't happen - definitely a chance to their credit arms. They pitch their brand to clients, but they don't make full pitch books and analyses for 1 pitch at a shot for a deal like regular IB. Got to see a lot of deals (take a few months from start to end, got to see pieces of lots of them each at different stages).

I actually felt like they were doing less modeling than the banking group on the other side of the floor, spent a lot of time tweaking models, but the models aren't as in depth as M&A because, as mentioned above, accounting is less of a factor in a CLO or ABS. It really just matters if each credit can pay. They don't care about their growth and terminal value, comps, multiples, no LBO analysis or stock dilution. (I'm not sure CMBS modeling might be different because the bank is originating the loan, running the analysis and modeling, and also acting as the distributor of the bonds on the back end, although that is RE and not "sexy" like IB is. Don't know anything else about those groups but for someone looking to get into RE it's a solid gig)

It's important to know why this is true...at a bank they're the ones lending to the issuers who are responsible for really putting together the securitization, it's just the warehouse that the bank is providing, in addition to selling the bonds and making sure that the structure and paper will be able to be sold. So yes they need to model to ensure their warehouse doesn't blow up and that investors will want to buy the stuff, but the banks don't really care about each credit in a CLO or ABS (obviously they care if it's a sanctioned shell company or about to go bust, since they're lending to the issuer to buy it and if it goes to 0 they can lose). But they rely heavily on the rating agencies for that stuff and then just make sure that there is enough cash from the credits to pay the bonds, run different analysis and tests. It does involve a lot of lawyers and paperwork though (I found that part interesting).

It's the issuers (buy-side funds, such as Blackstone's GSO) who are doing more analysis and modeling on each one of those credits. I imagine their skill set of modeling each credit has overlap with banking (cashflow and a cap structure).

I'm not an expert in the field, just did it for one summer, but hope was helpful.

 

That is the direction I am trying to go. No direct experience, but reading and talking to mentors, one of them in securitization it all seems to be true.

 

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Best, Donkey Money
 

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