Loans' Securitisation Originated By SFBs To Cross Rs 10,000 Cr In FY24: Icra
The volume of funds raised through securitisation by the small finance banks (SFBs) to exceed Rs 10,000 crore in the financial year 2023-34 (FY24), as against Rs 6,400 crore in FY23 including both pass-through certificate issuances as well as direct assignments, Icra expects.
The third quarter of FY24 (Q3 FY24) alone witnessed the quarterly record high securitisation volumes of about Rs 4,200 crore. The market share of SFBs in the securitisation market would accordingly touch a peak of six per cent in FY24 from levels of sub-2 per cent prior to FY22. In FY24, six SFBs raised funds through this route against four in FY2023 and only two in FY2022. The increase in the number of SFBs securitising their assets signals a deepening of the domestic securitisation market, as it provides them with an alternate route to raise funds to sustain their growth momentum.
Abhishek Dafria, Senior Vice President and Group Head, Structured Finance Ratings at Icra said, “The securitisation market has traditionally been dominated by non-banking financial companies and housing finance companies acting as originators and thus the emergence of SFBs has helped in expanding the market. The SFBs are witnessing healthy growth in their gross advances at about 24 to 25 per cent, which is likely to continue in the near term, given the strong credit appetite in the country.”
Dafria further added that while deposits continue to be a significant share of the overall funding mix, the SFBs have increased the share of securitisation in FY23 and yield to date (YTD) FY24 as a means to diversify their funding mix. Also, with increased competition for deposit mobilisation as well as slowing deposit growth, ICRA expects them to continue to increase their securitisation volumes in the near term.”
The overall domestic securitisation market has seen strong growth in recent years and is estimated to be around Rs 1.9 to 2.0 lakh crore for FY24 compared to Rs 1.8 lakh crore in FY2023, supported by high funding needs for the originators, coupled with the increase in both originators and investors in the securitisation market.
In line with the growing acceptance and familiarity with securitisation, the SFBs are also successfully utilising this channel to ensure that growth in the loan book remains robust even if the deposit growth were to witness any challenges.
The SFBs have securitised receivables from vehicle loans, microfinance loans, business loans as well as home loans, with a high share of the assets qualifying under priority sector lending (PSL), thereby finding good demand in the banking sector.
Further, investor confidence is likely to have increased in recent years as the SFBs are demonstrating better asset quality for the post-covid originated portfolio. The improvement in their credit profile is also an important factor since they would continue to act as the servicer for the securitisation transactions.
“The securitisation market with SFBs as the originator is still skewed towards the behaviour of the largest player, given its significant scale. However, the share of the top player has reduced in the last two years with new originators participating in the securitisation market. Similarly, we are seeing interest even in pass-through certificates rated lower than AAA(SO), as investor confidence has risen for a few other originators as well. The pass-through certificate yields are trending ~100 bps higher than the average cost of funds for the SFBs and similar to the level for the other borrowings of the originators,” Dafria added.
