Canaccord Financial Inc. has turned the page -- or more appropriately, closed the book -- on its involvement in the asset-backed commercial paper saga.
The firm said during its most recent quarter, "Canaccord disposed of substantially all of the company's holdings of Asset Backed Commercial Paper."
Canaccord became entangled after selling the paper to retail clients. When the ABCP froze in the summer of 2007, the clients screamed for refunds.
Canaccord didn't have the money, but the firm worked hard to find a solution, with president Mark Maybank playing a key and tireless role on the ABCP restructuring committee.
In the end, when it became clear to the committee that Canaccord clients had to be made whole or the overall restructuring would fail, a mystery saviour stepped up to buy much of the paper in the Canaccord retail system. (Canaccord has never confirmed this, but the buyer was the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the biggest ABCP owner and the biggest loser if the restructuring fell through.)
Even so, Canaccord ended up with some ABCP still on its books after the restructuring. For all the pain, the ABPC the firm had turned out to be not a bad investment as the paper rallied hard last year.
With Canaccord's exit, there are not many chapters left in the ABCP tale.