ABS

  • Heavy burden

    Student loan servicing under the spotlight

    Average US student debt levels have now swelled to a record US$30,000 plus, sparking concern that the US economy could be negatively affected by constrained home ownership and long-term consumption growth. At the same time, high-profile legal cases relating to the difficulty of debtors to discharge their debt through bankruptcy and the recent CFPB versus Navient case suggest that student .......

    News Analysis 25 January 2017

  • Aligned interests

    US funds continue Spanish NPL storm

    US funds continue to storm the Spanish NPL market for investment opportunities. They appear to be capitalising on funding structures and operational processes that match the asset characteristics of the large non-core disposal programmes seen in the country.

    NPL transaction volumes in Spain reached €23bn in 2016, up from €16bn in 2015, €21bn in 2014 and €6bn in 2013, according .......

    News Analysis 24 January 2017

  • Autos lead US ABS

    The auto sector is currently leading the way in the US ABS secondary market.

    Overall, ABS secondary spreads continued to edge in last week and into this, particularly at the top of the stack. Autos are seeing similar moves but are doing so despite accounting for the majority of secondary supply and dominating the new issue pipeline.

    Rotation activity is .......

    SCIWire 24 January 2017

  • Euro secondary still seeks supply

    Demand continues to outstrip supply in the European securitisation secondary market.

    Tone remains positive across the board and investor appetite is still strong in every sector. However, there continues to be next to no supply via BWICs or new issuance. Consequently, when auctions do appear they trade exceptionally well and are keeping spreads flat to slightly tighter.

    There is currently .......

    SCIWire 24 January 2017

  • WestLB spin-off acquired

    Mount Street is set to acquire EAA Portfolio Advisors (EPA) from Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), which was created at end-2009 under the German Financial Market Stabilisation Fund Act to manage the assets of WestLB. The €200bn portfolio comprised a diverse range of complex non-performing loan, ABS, leveraged credit, asset finance and structured finance assets.

    EPA has reduced the outstanding balance of .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2017

  • Distressed team beefs up

    Michael Carley has joined BTIG as a director of fixed income credit, focused on illiquid markets across high yield, distressed debt, loans, trade claims and private equities. Based in New York, he will report to Drew Doscher, md and head of fixed income credit at BTIG.

    Carley was previously a member of the distressed debt trading group at Jefferies, which .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2017

  • CRE lawyer promoted

    Sutherland has elected three new partners and nine new counsel to the firm. One of the new counsel - Brooke Parris - has securitisation expertise.

    Based in Atlanta, Parris represents lenders, servicers, developers and pension fund advisers in various aspects of real estate finance and development. She devotes significant time advising clients on structured finance and real estate finance (including .......

    Job Swaps 20 January 2017

  • Cautious optimism

    Secondary CRT market gaining momentum

    The secondary market for capital relief trades has been growing alongside issuance of syndicated deals, which account for approximately 50% of CRT volume. In spite of a number of hurdles, market participants remain positive about the future of secondary trading in the sector.

    Juan Grana, md of the structured solutions group at Nomura, notes that secondary capital relief trades tend .......

    News Analysis 20 January 2017

  • Tobacco update affects ratings

    Moody's has updated its methodology for rating tobacco settlement revenue securitisations. The methodology changes affect ratings on US$1.5bn of outstanding ABS.

    The update reflects the incorporation of new formulas and procedures related to the October 2015 New York state settlement and an extension of recovery lag assumptions. Moody's has consequently upgraded the ratings of 12 tranches in 10 tobacco settlement revenue .......

    News Round-up 20 January 2017

  • MS names structured credit chief

    Morgan Stanley is moving one of its EMEA capital markets co-heads into Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Claus Skrumsager will take control of a structured credit team and fund that is yet to be finalised.

    Skrumsager will join the firm's solutions and multi-asset platform as portfolio manager and head of private structured credit solutions. He has been with Morgan Stanley for 10 .......

    Job Swaps 20 January 2017

  • Card ABS volume to grow

    Credit card debt in the US is growing while credit card utilisation rates are trending lower, suggesting that consumers are using credit cards as a "convenient payment option and less as a line of credit", according to Wells Fargo structured products analysts. They add that credit card debt levels are at a much lower percentage of nominal GDP than in the past.

    News Round-up 19 January 2017

  • Unconstrained fund launched

    Dolfin has launched the Dolfin Unconstrained Credit Strategy, which targets consistently positive returns in all market contexts by capturing top-down market shifts and investing in attractive bottom-up opportunities across the global fixed income spectrum. Devised and managed by senior portfolio manager Alex Eventon, the strategy applies rare investment flexibility, institutional investment tools and dynamic risk management, with a performance target .......

    News Round-up 19 January 2017

  • Euro ABS/MBS accelerates

    Activity has accelerated in the European ABS/MBS secondary market after a slow start to the week.

    The continuing strong tone and investor cash reserves continue to fuel demand for paper, which has generated increased bilateral trading in most sectors over the past two sessions. At the same time, BWIC volumes remain low as sellers keep their powder dry, while the .......

    SCIWire 19 January 2017

  • Varied approaches

    Retained risk valuation practices gauged

    The horizontal retention piece of a securitisation could be considered the very definition of a Level 3 asset: rarely traded - if ever - with very limited market information. Subject to fair value assessment before and after a deal closes, market participants are taking a number of different valuation approaches to such assets, with no single method yet considered to .......

    News Analysis 19 January 2017

  • Bar loan ruling 'ABS negative'

    A 2016 ruling by the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York on the dischargeability of bar loans is credit negative for securitisations, says Moody's. The ruling found that a bar loan was not exempt from being discharged, which is credit negative because it could lead to future higher defaults and lower recoveries on similar loans.

    The .......

    News Round-up 18 January 2017

  • ILS firm launched

    A new alternative asset management firm focused on ILS investments has been founded in Tel Aviv. Dubbed IBI ILS Partners, it has been co-founded by Israel's IBI Investment House and Roman Muraviev.

    Muraviev will act as managing partner of IBI ILS Partners. He was previously at Twelve Capital, where he managed the firm's cat bond strategy.

    IBI Investment House is one .......

    Job Swaps 18 January 2017

  • Modelling head named

    MSCI has recruited David Zhang as head of securitised products research. In this newly created role, he will oversee the firm's development of models that help traders, portfolio managers and other institutional investors analyse risk and return for securitised products.

    Zhang previously headed modelling of securitised products at Credit Suisse. In 11 years at the firm, he designed models for .......

    Job Swaps 18 January 2017

  • Chrysler scandal 'ABS negative'

    The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to Fiat Chrysler because of the installation and use of engine management software to manipulate diesel emissions. Moody's notes that this is credit negative for some US auto ABS.

    The EPA violation notice cites more than 100,000 model year 2014-2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2017

  • ILS firm placements head appointed

    XL Catlin has appointed Anne Middleton as global head of placements, ceded reinsurance. Middleton will be based in London and be responsible for overseeing and negotiating the terms, structure and pricing of XL Catlin's reinsurance programmes.

    Middleton will report to Mark van Zanden, chief executive of XL Catlin's P&C underwriting capital management team. She was previously head of finance for .......

    Job Swaps 17 January 2017

  • Euro secondary slow

    It's been slow start to the week so far for the European securitisation secondary markets.

    Participants look to have taken the opportunity of the US public holiday yesterday to catch their breath and there was little movement in terms of trading or levels. However, tone remains very strong across the board and volumes are likely to pick up as the .......

    SCIWire 17 January 2017

  • Weather risk platform introduced

    Speedwell Weather has launched its weatherXchange platform, which aims to help companies access index-based weather risk protection and which provides valuation and settlement services. As well as access to weather data, it also provides structuring tools to help new hedgers through the process of designing a hedge.

    weatherXchange is designed to bring index-based weather hedging to new users in energy, .......

    News Round-up 16 January 2017
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