Quarterly European Securitisation Issuance Report -- Q1 2025

This is Morningstar DBRS' quarterly report covering European securitisation issuance and trends in the preceding quarter. The European securitisation markets started the year on a solid footing, carrying momentum from Q4 2024. The distributed issuance continued its strong pace, totalling EUR 38.3 billion, which is 19.0% higher than Q4 2024, making it the highest Q1 investor-placed issuance post global financial crises, driven by broad syndicated loan collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Total issuance in Q1 2025 stood at EUR 67.5 billion, which was 5.0% higher than EUR 64.3 billion in Q4 2024.

The sectors at the forefront were primarily residential mortgage-backed securities led by the UK, followed by CLO and auto asset-backed securities. For 2025, we expect a total aggregated issuance forecast of EUR 205 billion to EUR 210 billion; however, we expect distributed volumes to remain steady around EUR 145 billion, approximately 65% to 70% of total expected issuance, with the trend of declining retained volumes continuing.