A Primer on Securitization

The prospect of introducing securitization to a novice — whether it be a newly minted graduate of business or law school, or a seasoned CFO of a corporation that is considering its first securitization — is daunting. The elegance of the theoretical concept becomes quickly mired in the interdependent demands of accounting, taxation, bankruptcy and securities laws, and the ever-changing contours of the investor marketplace as soon as the novice begins to ask questions. Successful completion of real-world securitization transactions requires not only cooperation among professionals in a variety of disciplines, but an intimate understanding of the parameters of those disciplines. The prospect of a primer that would provide a first glimpse of the contours of this terrain would be a welcome addition to the library of many a law firm, accounting firm, or investment bank. Alas, A Primer on Securitization, edited by Leon T. Kendall and Michael J. Fishman, is not that book. The primer is instead is a collection of essays by some of the pivotal players in the development of securitization over the last quarter century, drawn from an eight-week colloquium held in 1994 at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Each has a vantage point. Each has war stories. Each brings the vocabulary of its author's discipline to the attention of the novice. The essays function as introductory material in the sense that they expose the novice reader to a number of perspectives and, in so doing, to the terms, phrases, and trains of thought inherent in each.