La Trobe issues RMBS offer

The 586 near-prime mortgage-backed securities have a weighted average seasoning of 71.6 months, an average loan to value ratio of 61.6 per cent and an average loan size of $174,084.

This is La Trobe Financial’s first issue and will enable the company to expand its funding capabilities.

The RMBS programme will form one part of La Trobe’s overall strategy for raising funding from domestic and overseas institutional grade investors.

La Trobe Financial said the RMBS issue complemented current institutional mandates and the growth of its retail mortgage fund in the past five years.

Chief investment officer Paul Wells said the company has raised a majority of its funding for its residential lending programme through medium- and long-term debt facilities and mandates from Australian and international banks.

“This has resulted in over $10 billion of loans being managed by the group,” said Mr Wells. “Supporting historical funding with a capital markets RMBS issuance creates complementary opportunities to strengthen and expand our funding footprint with more investors both here and globally.”

Commonwealth Bank of Australia's head of debt markets securitisation, Rob Verlander, said the transaction demonstrates La Trobe’s "ongoing support of the market for this asset class”.

“It is our expectation that La Trobe Financial will be able to access this market regularly and successfully in the future,” said Mr Verlander.