UK life insurer Rothesay has launched its debut public securitisation, Tampa Finance 2026-1, backed by a portion of the giant pool of French mortgages it purchased from HSBC last year.
As well as being Rothesay’s debut, it is the only master trust in the European market backed by acquired assets, and the only mortgage master trust since the financial crisis to offer a full capital structure to investors, with only the unrated class Z retained.
HSBC launched the €7bn mortgage sale process, Project Tampa, last year, marketing a book which had been left over from the sale of HSBC France’s retail operations to Cerberus-owned MyMoneyBank in 2024.
Bidders who looked at the portfolio included Pimco, CarVal and Apollo, as well as a joint bid between Rothesay and MyMoneyBank. Rothesay confirmed in July that it had won the portfolio, then €6.7bn in notional size. Neither party disclosed a sale price, though HSBC booked a $1.3bn loss associated with the transaction in its second quarter results.
Life insurers like Rothesay often structure their originated and purchased assets into private securitisation vehicles, achieving optimal capital efficiency by carving out notes eligible for matching-adjustment treatment under Solvency II or UK Solvency....
