McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Regulation continues to be one of the most significant factors influencing structured finance activity across Europe.

Discussions focused on the future of the European securitisation framework, capital treatment, and broader efforts to enhance the competitiveness of European capital markets. While participants welcomed ongoing regulatory engagement, there was broad recognition that regulatory developments will be a factor in issuance activity, investor appetite, and transaction structuring across multiple asset classes. A particular positive was the prospect of better regulatory capital treatment for securitisation investments.

As markets evolve, regulatory certainty and efficiency remain critical to supporting long-term growth.

SRT transactions continue to play an increasingly important role in helping financial institutions optimise capital and manage balance sheet requirements.

What was particularly notable at Global ABS 2026 was the shift in focus from market adoption to market maturity. Discussions centred on execution, pricing, investor participation, capital efficiency, and the long-term sustainability of the asset class.

As the SRT market continues to expand, participants highlighted the importance of balancing innovation with consistency, transparency, and regulatory alignment.

The collapse of the UK bridging lender, Market Financial Solutions (MFS), has put collateral verification firmly back on the agenda, with market participants expected to demand more robust audit rights, the use of big four auditors across transactions, enhanced asset-level reporting, and independent verification of loan tapes and security packages. For trustees and agents, the key will be supporting stronger controls without inadvertently assuming open-ended monitoring or fraud-detection obligations.

Participants discussed the potential for independent registries, digital platforms, and distributed-ledger or tokenisation-style infrastructure to create a more reliable audit trail over pledged assets, giving financing providers greater real-time visibility into what collateral has been pledged, to whom, and when.
The discussions also highlighted that technology is not a complete solution on its own. Data integrity, governance, legal controls, and industry-wide adoption remain essential, particularly where implementation costs, fragmented participation, and evolving regulatory expectations could affect how quickly common standards emerge.

The data centre discussion went beyond the obvious AI demand narrative. The more interesting point is that the scale of capital required for digital infrastructure is pushing sponsors, lenders, and investors to look harder at securitisation and other structured funding tools.

While the asset class has attractive features, long-term contracted revenues, mission-critical infrastructure, and strong hyperscaler demand, the risks are equally specific, with key questions relating to power availability, sustainability pressure, tenant concentration, technology obsolescence, and whether assets are genuinely stabilised.

The market opportunity is clear, but execution depends on disciplined structuring, credible cash-flow analysis, and careful allocation of operating, energy, and refinancing risk.