This book provides comprehensive legal and regulatory guidance on this rapidly expanding area of finance. It gives a complete insider's view of current practice - written by leading lawyers, investment bankers and ratings agencies and deals with setting up new transactions and the administration of existing arrangements. It examines the related economic and technological issues and replete with tools such as key lending agreements and makes important pan-European comparisons and with practice in the US. It also contains a detailed glossary explaining the meaning of specialised terms and abbreviations. It includes a chapter on the investor's perspective helping their legal advisors meet their needs and looks ahead to likely future trends and opportunities.