The Elements of Structured Finance

For all but the most credit-worthy companies, it is more efficient to finance large pools of assets that have predictable behavioral characteristics through non-standard arrangements. These off-balance sheet structures allow credit exposures to be tailored to investor risk, asset class, and an ever-increasing diversity of idiosyncratic needs on the part of issuers and investors. The discipline that addresses these structures, which is called structured finance or securitization, is almost twenty years old, and has become a ubiquitous element of modern financial management. Yet, it has not been systematically covered in a textbook designed for both the school and workplace contexts.

Elements of Structured Finance, the text version of a program of instruction in structured finance that the authors have offered at universities, private training programs, and consultancies, fills this void spectacularly. Raynes and Rutledge, two very highly regarded teachers and consultants in the field, bring clarity and logic to an inherently complex and frightening area of finance, using their extensive experience working with many of the top Wall Street securities houses. The book will start with the relatively simple concepts of static valuation models and the benchmark pool, and take the reader through the more esoteric features of dynamic risk analysis, thus serving as both an excellent introduction for the beginner and an essential reference for the professional. In addition to participants in structured finance programs, this book will appeal to structured finance analysts and managers at banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, and a wide variety of other corporations.

Ann Rutledge is currently adjunct assistant professor of finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Both are co-authors of The Analysis of Structured Securities, published by Oxford University Press in August 2003. They are founding principals of the New York-based, structured credit metrics boutique, R&R Consulting. Their clients include rating agencies, governments, universities, and global banks.

Sylvain Raynes is adjunct assistant professor within the Masters Program in Financial Engineering at Baruch College, CUNY in New York City.