Today, the Federal Reserve announced that it was restarting the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (“TALF”) to support the issuance of asset-backed securities (“ABS”) collateralized by consumer and commercial loans.  Established under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, with the approval of the U.S. Treasury Secretary, the TALF will serve as a funding backstop to facilitate the issuance of eligible ABS on or after March 23, 2020 until September 30, 2020, unless extended.  

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will commit to lend to a special purpose vehicle on a recourse basis.  Each loan under the TALF will have a maturity of three years, will be nonrecourse to the borrower, and will be fully secured by eligible ABS and be made to eligible borrowers (any U.S. company that owns eligible collateral and maintains an account relationship with a primary dealer is eligible to borrow under the TALF).

Eligible collateral includes U.S. dollar denominated cash (that is, not synthetic) ABS that have a credit rating in the highest long-term or the highest short-term investment-grade rating category from at least two eligible nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (“NRSROs”) and do not have a credit rating below the highest investment-grade rating category from an eligible NRSRO.  All or substantially all of the credit exposures underlying eligible ABS must have been originated by a U.S. company.

Eligible collateral must be ABS where the underlying credit exposures are one of the following:

• auto loans and leases;

• student loans;

• credit card receivables (both consumer and corporate);

• equipment loans;

• floorplan loans;

• insurance premium finance loans;

• certain small business loans that are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration; or

• eligible servicing advance receivables.

According to a term sheet released by the Federal Reserve, the “feasibility of adding other asset classes to the [TALF] will be considered in the future.” 

The pledged eligible collateral will be valued and assigned a haircut according to a schedule based on its sector, the weighted average life, and historical volatility of the ABS.  This haircut schedule will be published in the detailed terms and conditions and will be roughly in line with the haircut schedule used for the TALF Facility established in 2008.  For eligible ABS with underlying credit exposures that do not have a government guarantee, the interest rate will be 100 basis points over the 2-year LIBOR swap rate for securities with a weighted average life less than two years, or 100 basis points over the 3-year LIBOR swap rate for securities with a weighted average life of two years or greater.  The pricing for other eligible ABS will be set forth in the detailed terms and conditions.

More detailed terms and conditions will be provided at a later date, primarily based off of the terms and conditions used for the TALF program created by the Federal Reserve in 2008 during the last financial crisis.