Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie advises on the first Residential Mortgage Backed Securitisation (RMBS) originated by Crédit Agricole Financements (Suisse) SA, a Swiss retail banking arm of Credit Agricole group. The CHF 200 million (equivalent of approximately GBP 156 million) transaction is one of the first RMBS in the Swiss market for many years, following recent changes to the tax legislation and recognition of the concept of trust under Swiss law. Baker McKenzie acted as counsel to arranger Crédit Agricole CIB as to Swiss law and English law.

This was a highly complex deal which involved local regulatory and tax challenges and included a cross-border element with documents governed by Swiss and English Law. The deal closed on 12 December.

Banking partner Frédéric Bétrisey, who led the transaction in Geneva, commented: "Such a transaction is very innovative on the Swiss market, which raised challenging legal and tax issues. Our global cross-border team of experts was able to provide strategic securitisation advice together with real estate, tax and banking advice. We were very proud that we could support our client in completing successfully such a complex transaction."

Leading on matters of English law, Jonathan Walsh, global head of securitisation, added: "It takes a truly global practice to pull together a deal of this nature – in this instance,  it was the combination of Swiss technical excellence  with experienced transactional support from London which finally got this over the line. I was delighted we were able to work seamlessly with Frédéric and his team to close this breakthrough transaction."

Cyril Tour, partner in the Baker McKenzie Paris office, also assisted on the transaction.