StrikeAndYield crib sheet · information and education only

Structured & Asset Finance

Money lent against a defined pool or a single asset rather than against a company — receivables, aircraft, power stations, buildings.

The desk — 8 transaction types

Aircraft finance	A loan against one machine with a serial number, a lease attached and a resale market. Everything depends on what it is worth at the end.
Commercial real estate loan	A loan against a building and the rent it produces. Almost nothing is repaid before maturity, which is where the risk sits.
Receivables finance	Money advanced against invoices already issued. The credit is the customers', not the borrower's — which is the whole point.
Shipping finance	A mortgage on a moving asset, repaid from freight rates nobody can forecast. The most cyclical lending on this desk.

Project finance	Money lent against one asset that does not exist yet, repaid only from what it earns. The lenders have no claim on anybody's balance sheet.
Securitisation	Loans sold into a vehicle that exists for nothing else, whose cash is distributed by a contract rather than by a decision.

CLO issue	A managed fund financed by tranched notes. Unlike the rest of this desk, the collateral is traded actively for years after pricing.
Significant risk transfer	A bank keeps the loans and sells only the risk. Nothing moves; what changes is how much capital must be held.

The quality and the history of the pool — Data, not a credit opinion, sets the structure
Where the assets legally sit — Separation from the originator is the whole point
The shape of the waterfall — Who is paid first, and what diverts the cash
Capital treatment for the buyer — Regulation decides who can hold which tranche
The single asset's own economics, in asset finance — One aircraft, one ship, one power station — no diversification at all
Servicing — Somebody has to collect the money for years

The warehouse	Assets are accumulated on a temporary facility before the deal exists
Rating agency review	The structure is modelled and sized before it is marketed
Pricing and settlement	Tranches are sold to different buyers on the same day
Monthly or quarterly reporting	Performance is published for the life of the deal
The call date, or the end of reinvestment	The structure's behaviour changes on a known date

Counted from the same table each transaction page prints. Not a rating and not a ranking: there is deliberately no total.