"Simple, Transparent and Standardized" Narratives, Law and the Interest Coalitions behind the European Commission's Capital Markets Union

In this paper we take a closer look at those parts of the European Commission's Capital Market Union (CMU) that bear upon the attempt to set up a new market for securitized mortgages, called "simple, transparent, standardized", or STS-securitization. The "puzzle" at the heart of the paper is the discrepancy between the "frontstage" narratives told by the Commission and the actual content of law making taking place "backstage". The paper comes in four sections. After the Introduction there are two sections, which look at the construction of what is meant to become a "new" European market in securitized assets which is distinguished from pre-crisis securitization by the markers "simple", "transparent" and "standardized". The second section looks at the narratives, the third at the legal details. The fourth section discusses the interest coalition behind it.