These failures illustrate how difficult securitisation can be even with relatively straightforward assets.

ECONOMIST: Bonds that rock and roll

Regaining his credibility will depend on the success of two new schemes: one to boost consumer lending by reviving securitisation, and another to remove toxic assets from banks (details of which are expected any day).

ECONOMIST: American International Group

Understanding the underlying assets is, or should be, at the core of securitisation.

ECONOMIST: Securitisation

Securitisation is really an arbitrage: with surplus collateral, assets can be bundled into an entity with a supercharged credit rating.

ECONOMIST: Securitisation

Securitisation, or the practice of bundling and selling more straightforward sorts of assets, such as mortgage receivables, has in one sense made banks more inscrutable, since banks are left with assets that are relatively opaque.

ECONOMIST: American banks