Media Release Response to the Consultation on Eligibility Criteria for CMBS and Other ABS, and Measures to Strengthen Privacy

On 2 October 2013, the Reserve Bank published for consultation new eligibility criteria for commercial mortgage backed (CMBS) and other asset-backed securities (ABS), alongside measures to strengthen borrower privacy under the Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) reporting arrangements. The consultation period closed on 28 October 2013.

The Bank is now publishing its response to the individual submissions received and annotated versions of the reporting templates. These documents finalise the new reporting requirements for CMBS and other ABS, as well as the measures to strengthen borrower privacy. The main changes to the reporting arrangements are outlined below.

Implementation Date and Changes to the CMBS and other ABS templates

The implementation date for the new reporting requirements for CMBS and other ABS will be 30 June 2015. From this date, reporting templates must be lodged with and validated by the Bank, and made publicly available if the securities are to be considered for eligibility for the Bank's domestic market operations.

A number of small changes have been made to the pool-level reporting template for other ABS. These are identified in the pool-level template. All other ABS and CMBS templates are unchanged from their draft form.

Proposals to strengthen borrower privacy for RMBS and other loan-level disclosures

The proposals to strengthen borrower privacy for RMBS and other loan level disclosures will be implemented in full. This reflects general support for the additional measures.

Information providers are expected to meet the reporting requirements in full, including the complete reporting of loan-level data in the required format in the publicly reported template. Failure to do so may render securities ineligible for the Bank's domestic market operations.

The Next Steps

The Reserve Bank's consultation with the industry on the new repo-eligibility criteria for asset-backed securities has now concluded. The Reserve Bank will continue to communicate with industry via the Reserve Bank's dedicated securitisations website – http://www.rba.gov.au/securitisations. Industry participants are strongly encouraged to subscribe to the site's RSS feed to receive alerts on updates and new developments.

A worked example of the cash flow waterfall reporting template for a hypothetical RMBS has been published on this site. Details of material data fields for RMBS will be posted shortly so that data providers can prioritise their efforts.