MIAMI-Tuesday afternoon at the CREFC January Conference, a panel of experts took the crowd through the intricacies of TRX.II indices, which Markit launched in early October 2011.

Brian Lancaster, head of MBS, CMBS and ABS Strategies at the Royal Bank of Scotland moderated. “The reason CREFC devoted this session to this one particular product and this topic is very important because CREFC believes that it has the potential to be a critical piece of the CMBX origination puzzle, as well as the investment puzzle,” Lancaster explained.

With uncertainty in Europe making it difficult for conduits to originate and price bonds, “TRX.II is designed to serve as a hedge—both for conduits and others—as well as an attractive investment vehicle,” he added. “Just like the pre-crash total rate of return swaps.”