Between October and December 2024, the European Commission conducted a consultation on the functioning of the EU securitisation framework. Following the passing of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402, commonly known as the SECR, and a subsequent Commission report on the impact of the SECR in 2022, this consultation marked the latest attempt to reinvigorate the European securitisation market.

The European Commission was motivated by reports from Mario Draghi, Enrico Letta and Christian Noyer on the need to strengthen lending capacity and create deeper capital markets in the bloc to increase competitiveness. By contrast with the US, the securitisation market in the EU has been unable to return to pre-financial crisis levels.

In this context, market participants were asked to provide their views on a series of potential reforms to existing regulation. Among these, question no. 3.6 asked respondents to provide their view on potentially expanding the definition of “sponsor” in the SECR to include alternative investment firm managers established in the EU (the “Question 3.6”). Furthermore, respondents were encouraged to suggest whether the definition should be expanded to include additional market participants.