British government set to sell securities backed by student loans

LONDON (Reuters/IFR) - The British government has begun a much-delayed sale of asset-backed securities backed by student loans, in what it expects to be the first of a series of sales that could bring in 12 billion pounds for the finance ministry.The plan to re-package student loans via securitisation -- an instrument famously used to repackage sub-prime mortgage loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis -- and sell them on to investors was expected to be launched earlier this year.In the