Arno Wellens & Frederique de Jong

Liset Hamming

Toen Lehman Brothers in 2008 omviel, had Liset Hamming nog nooit van securitisaties gehoord. Dat veranderde toen ze twee jaar later als advocaat-stagiaire aan de slag ging bij Loyens & Loeff. Deze week ging ze in gesprek met haar oude baas en de legal counsel: hoe onveilig waren de ‘pakketjes’ hypotheken en andere vorderingen, beter bekend als de producten die de schuld van de kredietcrisis kregen?

Gastauteur

In their series on securitization, Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher fear that a revived market for the product would only fuel asset bubbles. Today, Paul Tang, member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), shares the other side of the story.

Ewald Engelen

Ewald Engelen watched the livestream of last week’s hearing on the European Commision’s Capital Markets Union and concludes that Paul Tang, rapporteur on the proposal to kickstart the European market for repackaged mortages, has upped the ante after his initial response, has thereby seriously annoyed bankers and their political backers, faces an uphill battle in learning the lessons of the crisis seriously and therefore deserves all the support he can get.

Ewald Engelen

Vanmiddag buigt de vaste Kamercommissie Financiën zich over de reactie van het kabinet op het plan van de Europese Commissie om een Europese kapitaalmarktunie van de grond te tillen. Columnist Ewald Engelen heeft er alvast een blik op geworpen. Dit zijn zijn bevindingen.

Ewald Engelen

Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher call upon members of European Parliament to wake up and block the return of bankers' paradise before it is too late. The 'Capital Markets Union' envisioned by the European Commission only reproduces the status-quo of an unsustainable financial oligopoly that sustains the few at the expense of the many.

Ewald Engelen

Today European Commissioner Jonathan Hill presented his long awaited action plan for the creation of a Europe-wide Capital Markets Union in Brussels. A key plank of this Union is the attempt to resuscitate the market for securitized mortgage loans, which, due to its role in igniting the financial crisis, has been moribund since the outbreak of the crisis. The aim of the Commission is to create a new market for safe securitizations based on simple, transparent and standardized products. In the article below Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher, both from the University of Amsterdam, critically discuss a draft proposal to that effect, that they have obtained through wikileaks. The authors argue that the proposal is based on faulty assumptions, is dangerous in that it furthers financialization and that it hence should be stopped.