CDOs are at the vanguard of development in the rapidly growing securitization market. The range of issuing institutions, structures, assets and jurisdictions embracing CDOs means that this sector globally, and in Europe in particular, is one of ever increasing diversity and change.

CDOs provide a variety of funding, arbitrage and balance sheet alternatives for issuers and equally attractive range of opportunities for investors. The European market to date has predominantly been driven by CBOs and CLOs issued for balanced sheet purposes while the U.S. has seen greater use of arbitrage and market value transactions. However, all approaches are increasingly being applied on both sides of the Atlantic.

Standard & Poor's has been at the forefront of this dynamic market since its inception. Our analysts have extensive experience and expertise in rating every type of CDO transaction both in the well-established U.S. market, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Standard & Poor's is committed to the European Securitization market with offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid. Its extensive team of specialist CDO analysts have a strong knowledge of local legal, regulatory and accounting frameworks. In New York there are more than 50 analysts focusing uniquely on CDOs and the Asian-Pacific team is rapidly growing too. Together this allows Standard & Poor's to provide the highest level of analytical expertise of any participant in the global CDO market.