Global ABS 2026: Thirty Years of Innovation in Structured Finance
From 9 to 11 June 2026, Barcelona hosted the 30th edition of the Global ABS Conference, the leading European event dedicated to securitization, asset-backed finance and structured finance in general.
The anniversary coincided with the most attended edition in the event’s history: over 6,000 registrations and an international presence comprising investors, issuers, originators, banks, asset managers, advisors, technology operators and institutional representatives. These numbers confirm that over three decades, Global ABS has become not just an industry conference, but one of the places where some of the main transformations in financial markets are anticipated and discussed.
The thirty-year milestone also provides an opportunity to observe the evolution of structured finance. Born and developed primarily around traditional assets such as mortgages, auto loans, consumer credit and leasing, today this industry encompasses an ever-widening array of instruments, technologies and underlying asset categories.
The agenda of the 2026 edition clearly reflected this transformation. Alongside the established topics of securitizations, CLOs, Significant Risk Transfer transactions and private credit, the conference dedicated space to asset-backed finance, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, energy transition, digital credits and new forms of financing linked to assets that until a few years ago were considered difficult to standardize.
The progressive expansion of the perimeter of financeable assets represents one of the most significant developments for the entire capital market. Structured finance makes it possible to analyze different economic flows, organize them according to homogeneous criteria and build instruments compatible with investors’ needs for yield, risk, duration and diversification.
It is within this evolution that it takes place the activity of Libra – Finanziamento del Contenzioso S.p.A., a platform operating on the principle of “turning claims into assets”. Compensation rights and other monetizable claims, despite having different characteristics from traditional financial assets, can be subjected to rigorous processes of selection, evaluation, aggregation, management and monitoring.
The role of Libra – FdC consists in making these underlying assets understandable and accessible to the capital market. The integration of legal, financial and technological expertise makes possible to transform a plurality of complex legal positions into structured portfolios, supported by data, defined procedures and governance consistent with the expectations of professional investors.
From this perspective, claims can be considered part of that new generation of “exotic” assets that is progressively attracting the attention of investors of increasingly significant size and profile. The goal is not to eliminate the legal specificities of the underlying assets, but to make them analyzable, manageable and integrable within transparent financial structures.
The history of Global ABS demonstrates, moreover, how numerous asset classes were initially perceived as innovative or niche. The development of a market depends on the availability of data, the standardization of processes, the quality of origination, discipline in risk management and the ability to build a stable dialogue between those who originate the assets and those who invest the capital.
Libra – FdC performs this connecting function within the scope of litigation finance: it identifies economically relevant rights, evaluates their solidity, designs the structure and manages the monetization path. Through this model, “turning claims into assets” becomes no longer onlt a summary of the company’s activity, but the expression of a broader process through which unconventional underlying assets can progressively acquire characteristics compatible with the institutional market.
The 30th anniversary of Global ABS represents a significant step for structured finance and for finance as a whole. The growing attention toward new underlying assets indicates a market in search of diversification, analytical capabilities and sources of yield not necessarily related to traditional assets.
In this scenario, specialized platforms like Libra – FdC can contribute to the birth and consolidation of new asset classes, bringing together capitals with the protection of rights and transforming exotic assets into more recognizable and, ultimately, mainstream components.
