It’s official. The markets for asset- and mortgage-backed securities bottomed out in 2009. After only 182 asset-backed deals that year, the market rebounded in 2010 as deals jumped more than 45 percent, to 264, according to Thomson Reuters. The mortgage-backed market had an even bigger transformation. Deals leaped more than 300 percent, from a moribund 16 transactions in 2009 to 65 in 2010. While volume was nothing like the heyday of 2006–when there were 2,400-plus asset- and mortgage-backed securities deals–lawyers within the industry are grateful that market is on an upswing.
“Things were a lot better in 2010,” says Michael Gambro of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, whose firm ranked first in the mortgage-backed market with 16 issues as issuer’s counsel, and ranked third with ten issues as manager’s counsel.
