Alpha Bank to securitise 1b euros of loans: sources

[ATHENS] Greece's Alpha Bank plans to securitise about one billion euros (S$1.7 billion) of shipping loans this summer in one of the first European asset-backed deals in this industry for years, a banker with Alpha Bank and another finance industry source said.

Europe's asset-backed market has not recovered from the financial crisis, but the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have both said that they want to revive it to provide money for credit-starved businesses and help to revitalise the region's economy.

Sources told Reuters last Friday that Alpha Bank expects to raise about 500 million euros in the transaction, which basically bundles together a series of individual shipping loans.