Awards for Excellence 2005
Bill Young
the great innovator of European ABS
 |
SECURITIZATION HAS TAKEN many years to become an indispensable part of European capital markets. Just 10 years ago it was a little understood, rarely used technique borrowed from the US. During the past five years, though, it has caught on with issuers and investors at a pace that has been nothing short of astonishing. Bill Young, formerly of Citigroup, now at Goldman Sachs, has headed up securitization teams that helped shape the European financial landscape. After working for Citibank in the US straight after completing college, Young journeyed to Europe in the late 1990s without expecting to still be in London seven years later. Once at Citigroup London, he set about establishing a small capital markets business working with continental European players that needed finance for commercial real estate. At that point Citibank was not a big player in ABS but that was about to change dramatically – suddenly he was behind the wheel of one of the strongest fixed-income franchises when Travelers merger with Citibank brought Salomon Brothers' investment banking capabilities into the fold.