Troubled ABCP continues to leave marks on market

Published Tuesday May 13th, 2008

TORONTO - For a while it seemed like the troubles tied to $32 billion in seized-up asset backed commercial paper were settling down, but ABCP has proven time and a gain that it's not going to exit the Canadian financial scene gracefully.

From the courtrooms to the quarterly reports and regulators, the troubled debt securities continues to pop up in the headlines.

The Investment Dealers Association of Canada, a regulatory body for brokerages, signalled that dealers who sold the paper could face disciplinary actions - regardless of legal releases that are at the centre of a rescue plan put together by Bay Street lawyer Purdy Crawford.

The IDA disclosed that it's in the middle of a compliance and enforcement sweep that covers some of its more than 200 member firms across the country.

"We've decided to do a joint review of both sales compliance and financial compliance of the IDA-member firms who were involved in the distribution and manufacturing of non-bank asset backed commercial paper," said Paul Bourque, senior vice-president of member regulation in an interview.

"The objective is to identify and address any areas for systemic improvement, such as internal controls or risk management."

Canadian ABCP was a victim of last summer's crisis in U.S. subprime mortgages, amid worries that some of the paper was tied to dodgy American home loans, in addition to bundles of higher-quality mortgages, car loans, credit card receivables and other assets.

Individual investors who had chunks of their life savings in ABCP have seen that investment teeter on the brink of either being tied up for several years or wiped out if the rescue plan failed and the notes were dumped at a discount by the major players.

A court-order vote in late April was a step towards ensuring that individual retail investors get their money back from securities dealers.

But many individual investors and companies that had purchased ABCP on the recommendation of their financial advisers expressed frustration that the restructuring plan included provisions to prevent civil suits against the companies that sold it.

Bourque said that the IDA has received about 100 complaints from retail customers who invested in ABCP product through brokers.

"As with all retail customer complaints we'll look into every single one of them," Bourque said.

While he declined to discuss the complaints in detail Bourque said that once a conclusion was reached the information would be made public. He added that the investigation will likely take months.

The impacts of ABCP were continuing to leave their marks on DundeeWealth Inc. (TSX:DW), which surprised investors on Monday when it disclosed a $75.9-million non-cash writedown tied to ABCP in the second quarter. Once booked, the writedown pulled the firm into the red with a quarterly loss of $49.7-million.

DundeeWealth had already taken a $95.2 million hit from ABCP last year. At the end of March, DundeeWealth held $379.4 million in the frozen ABCP.

"They've definitely done more diligence in trying to determine the fair value than maybe some other companies," said one analyst for the company who asked to remain anonymous.

"Canaccord (Capital) had written their paper down to 60 cents on the dollar, so I think this caught people a little bit off guard."

Canaccord, a Vancouver-based investment dealer, is thought to have the largest number of individual clients with ABCP. The company has announced a plan that would ensure retail investors get their money back within a few weeks of the Crawford rescue plan going into effect.

The analyst added that while DundeeWealth might be bringing its holdings to a "more reflective value of what the paper is worth right now" that doesn't necessarily mean that ABCP won't turn up in their future quarterly reports.

"The longer the restructuring takes to get closed, yeah I think you could see more writedowns," he said.

On Tuesday, an Ontario Superior Court judge continued into the second day of hearings which focus on the fairness of the ABCP plan.

The judge has expressed some concern over releasing brokers from potential litigation over their role in selling ABCP, but he has also acknowledged that the plan could fail if the legal provision is tweaked or removed because some major backers of the deal would withdraw their support.

Nearly 96 per cent of noteholders - representing $28.8 billion of the assets - approved the restructuring proposal in the vote last month.

The ABCP restructuring plan has been criticized by corporations and other middle-level players with over $1 million in the holdings who aren't eligible for the buyback option.

Those holders would likely file lawsuits in an attempt to recover their losses.

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