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Accurate information is required to make sound financial decisions. However, in the asset-backed securities industry getting good information has historically proven difficult. The industry has suffered from a lack of consistent guidelines on reporting metrics. Furthermore, the various parties who do track the data each have their own methods of distributing the data -- some hard copy, some fax, and some Internet-based. These issues, combined with the sheer number of ABS transactions, have made keeping up with the disparate data sources and their respective reporting methodologies a monumental task.
To address this problem, Lewtan Technologies, the leading provider of technology solutions to the securitization industry, teamed up with Standard & Poor's in 1998 to create a centralized resource for data and information on asset-backed securities. Leveraging its technology expertise, Lewtan created ABSNet, a web-based service offering access to asset-backed securities data and information.
ABSNet took on the challenge of collecting, organizing, and validating performance data on thousands of asset-backed securities, creating a comprehensive database of performance statistics that ABS professionals could access via the Internet. ABSNet then added software productivity tools so that users could manipulate the data and conduct "on-the-fly analyses" directly within the service. Finally, ABSNet built up an extensive library of asset-backed information, consolidating news and research from leading trade journals, news services, rating agencies, and corporate research departments to make ABSNet a "one-stop shopping" resource for securitization information.
Since its release, ABSNet has attracted more than 12,000 industry professionals to the site, many of whom visit the site daily to obtain information to support their securitization activities. ABSNet users represent a cross-section of industry participants, including issuers, investors, credit enhancers, sell-side analysts, traders, investment bankers, and rating agencies. In addition, ABSNet has forged partnerships with more than a dozen leading organizations within the securitization industry. These relationships, combined with ongoing enhancements to the service, enable ABSNet to deliver high-quality data and information to securitization industry professionals.
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