The three biggest American issuers of ABCP were Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan. The vehicles for managing this operation were so-called structured investment vehicles (SIV), legal entities provided with a minimum layer of capital by their “sponsors,” but otherwise separate from the balance sheets of their parent banks. Onto these SIVs the parent bank would offload a large portfolio of mortgage bonds, securitized car loans, credit card debt or student debt.
