ABS

  • Sukuk industry poised for growth

    Long-term prospects for the sukuk industry remain promising, according to S&P. The agency notes that regulators continue to build and strengthen their frameworks to minimise barriers in the market and deepen liquidity.

    "After a slowdown in 2013, with sukuk volumes declining by 13%, we anticipate that the sukuk industry will expand again in 2014 - partly driven by corporate and .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Reg AB vote postponed

    The US SEC has decided to delay the vote on Regulation AB 2, which had been planned for tomorrow's open meeting (SCI 31 January). It is expected to be a temporary postponement and a separate notice will be issued when the item is rescheduled for Commission consideration.

    Separately, 13 senators have sent the SEC a letter in connection with purported .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Reducing variation

    Valuation standards on the cards

    The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) is establishing a cross-industry taskforce to develop principles of best practice for the valuation of financial instruments. The move has been welcomed as a step towards increasing transparency and reducing variation in values.

    The IVSC has been setting valuation standards many years, but the organisation's technical director Chris Thorne says it's clear that concern .......

    News Analysis 3 February 2014

  • Positive outlook for LatAm securitisation

    Prospects for the Latin American structured finance markets in 2014 are good, according to S&P. In particular, the agency expects demand among Mexican issuers and Brazilian investors to create new opportunities for dynamic securitisation structures.

    A rebounding Mexican economy is likely to increase funding needs for local issuers, while an anticipated slowdown in the Brazilian economy may spur investor demand .......

    News Round-up 31 January 2014

  • Reg AB 2 vote scheduled

    The US SEC is to hold an open meeting on 5 February to discuss, among other topics, Regulation AB 2. Specifically, the Commission will consider whether to adopt rules revising the disclosure, reporting and offering process for ABS.

    The revisions would require asset-backed issuers to provide enhanced disclosures, including information for certain asset classes about each asset in the underlying .......

    News Round-up 31 January 2014

  • EU prop trading rules proposed

    The European Commission has proposed rules to prevent large banks from engaging in proprietary trading. The rules would also give supervisors the power to require those banks to separate certain potentially risky trading activities from their deposit-taking business if the pursuit of such activities compromises financial stability. Alongside this proposal, the Commission has adopted accompanying measures aimed at increasing the .......

    News Round-up 30 January 2014

  • State-sponsored cat bonds proliferate

    Fitch expects continued growth in catastrophe bonds from state- and government-sponsored insurance organisations this year. The agency reports that investor demand remains considerable, while the cost of sponsoring a cat bond has continued to converge with the cost of ceding risk to the traditional reinsurance markets.

    The cat bond market has seen a significant influx of deals from repeat sponsors, .......

    News Round-up 30 January 2014

  • Trepp invests in solar analysis platform

    Solar energy investment analysis and decision making platform Mercatus has closed its Series A round of financing. Trepp has joined Vision Ridge Partners, Augment Ventures and Shah Capital in investing in the company and Trepp coo Dan Gottlieb will also join Mercatus' board.

    Mercatus allows lenders and capital market investors to harness the strength of its investment analysis and analytics .......

    Job Swaps 29 January 2014

  • Vitality Re deals scrutinised

    Moody's says it views the risk and required capital reduction from Aetna's medical benefit claims transactions as "quite modest and temporary". The comment comes after its latest Vitality Re V catastrophe bond - the US$200m five-year series 2014-1 - completed last week.

    Each transaction provides collateralised excess of loss reinsurance coverage limited to the principal amount of the notes issued .......

    News Round-up 29 January 2014

  • Open-source modelling framework unveiled

    An open, independent natural catastrophe loss modelling platform has launched after two years in development. Dubbed Oasis Loss Modelling Framework, the offering is owned by 21 insurers, reinsurers and brokers, but is open to anyone with an interest in creating new catastrophe risk models.

    Oasis is not-for-profit and aims to bring down the costs of modelling, as well as providing .......

    News Round-up 29 January 2014

  • CIR RFC issued

    Moody's has published a request for comment seeking feedback on proposed changes to its methodology for assigning counterparty instrument ratings (CIRs). The agency is proposing to change how it assesses the effect of counterparty linkage on swap CIRs in order to conform to its cross-sector rating methodology on assessing swap counterparties in structured finance cashflow transactions. If the proposed changes .......

    News Round-up 28 January 2014

  • PCAs to address commingling risk

    German securitisations are increasingly being structured with a PCA that is a collection account in the name of the servicer but pledged to the SPV. This PCA differs from the typical servicer collection account in that collected moneys should not be commingled with the servicer's insolvency estate in case of servicer insolvency. In Fitch's view, the PCA could reduce such .......

    News Round-up 28 January 2014

  • ABS supply hits highs

    US ABS BWIC volume reached a monthly high yesterday as traders returned to their desks after the ABS Vegas conference. Bid-list volume approached US$500m, driven by high auto supply and a variety of student loan tranches.

    SCI's PriceABS data yesterday captured a number of auto names that had not previously appeared in the archive, such as the ALLYA .......

    Market Reports 28 January 2014

  • Asian ratings poised for positive performance

    S&P expects collateral performance and structural enhancement to underpin stable to marginally positive ratings performance for Asia-Pacific structured finance securities. However, tranches that have key rating dependencies on transaction counterparties could continue to be affected by the credit conditions that would impact the credit profiles of the counterparties, the agency says.

    The economic outlook is mixed across countries where outstanding .......

    News Round-up 28 January 2014

  • Subprime auto ABS remain 'protected'

    A potential slow-down in the growth of US auto sales and increased competition to maintain market share could encourage lenders to reach out to borrowers with weaker credit. Based on a comparison of credit metrics of subprime auto ABS deals that were issued in 2011 - when underwriting was tighter - with deals from 2012 and 2013, Wells Fargo ABS .......

    News Round-up 23 January 2014

  • RFC issued on sovereign approach

    Fitch has published a criteria exposure draft detailing how ratings of structured finance (SF) notes and covered bonds (CVB) are constrained by the credit quality of the sovereign to which the transaction is exposed. In particular, it provides detail regarding the agency's current approach to assigning SF and CVB ratings that are higher than the relevant sovereign local currency issuer .......

    News Round-up 23 January 2014

  • Banner year for ILS secondary market

    The insurance-linked securities market experienced a surge in issuance last year to end only US$800m short of 2007's record US$8.24bn issuance. It was also a very strong year for the secondary market and the tightening seen in 2013 is set to carry over into this year.

    Swiss Re Capital Markets reports that catastrophe bond supply hitting its trading desk last .......

    News 23 January 2014

  • Card performance to level off

    US credit card charge-offs and delinquencies improved in 4Q13, locking in year-end results on a positive note, according to Fitch's latest quarterly index for the sector. Monthly payment rates also held steady at record highs.

    "Borrower behaviour has clearly improved as consumers remain disciplined in paying down their credit card debt," observes Fitch md Michael Dean.

    Charge-offs finished the year .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2014

  • Dynamic ILS fund offered

    Falcon Private Bank has launched the Twelve-Falcon Insurance Opportunities Fund, a dynamic catastrophe bond fund in UCITS format. The offering - which will be managed by Twelve Capital - is designed to provide a low-correlation investment opportunity, as well as a flexible scheme for allocation.

    .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2014

  • Reinsurance investment strategies minted

    New Ocean Capital Management has launched two reinsurance investment strategies. In addition to capital furnished by its founders - XL Group and Stone Point Capital - the firm has received capital commitments from funds managed by Dowling Capital Partners I and a global asset manager. Dowling Capital has also acquired an equity participation in the company. New Ocean deployed capital .......

    Job Swaps 17 January 2014

  • Tohoku-related distribution disclosed

    CATCo Investment Management has announced that a distribution of 2.887c will be payable to ordinary shareholders of the CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities fund on 24 January. The payment relates to the Master Fund's exposure to the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, following an agreement with a reinsurance counterparty.

    CATCo had two reinsurance counterparties with potential exposure to the event and took a .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014
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