ABS

  • Euro ABCP responding to regulatory requirements

    S&P reports that the European ABCP sector is responding to increased regulation from national and supranational bodies, in particular the Basel 3 requirements. Specifically, conduits are making structural modifications to their programmes to meet new liquidity requirements.

    The inclusion of unrated trade receivables sellers continues to account for the majority of conduits' new seller activity. By contrast, their holdings of .......

    News Round-up 16 November 2011

  • Future flow criteria released

    S&P has published its global methodology and assumptions for rating financial future flow securitisations. Specifically, the criteria apply to transactions whose repayment of principal and interest are secured by the generation of future diversified payment right (DPR) and merchant voucher (MV) receivables.

    The criteria provide a framework for assigning ratings to financial future flow transactions based on a multifaceted approach .......

    News Round-up 16 November 2011

  • EC eyes tougher CRA rules

    The European Commission is proposing to toughen European legislation on credit rating agencies. The proposed draft Directive and draft regulation has four main goals: to ensure that financial institutions do not rely only on credit ratings for their investments; more transparent and more frequent sovereign debt ratings; more diversity and stricter independence of credit rating agencies to eliminate conflicts of .......

    News Round-up 15 November 2011

  • Solar financing MOU signed

    SolarTech and CalCEF have entered into a memorandum of understanding designed to bring finance, performance and reliability best practice leaders together. The aim is to accelerate industry efforts to increase investor confidence, decrease project risk and improve flow of capital in the solar financing sector.

    "The securitisation of solar assets will unleash one of the most powerful forces in finance, .......

    News Round-up 15 November 2011

  • IRGs revamped

    Fitch has revamped its issuer report grades (IRGs) to promote improvements in investor reporting standards for EMEA structured finance transactions. IRGs provide a measure of the quality, content, accuracy and timeliness of the reporting available for each transaction, the agency says.

    "Some issuers have made significant efforts to improve the information available to investors and deserve credit for the progress .......

    News Round-up 15 November 2011

  • Greek ratings ceiling reviewed again

    Moody's has placed on review for downgrade Greek structured finance notes rated from Ba1 to B3, representing nine tranches of six ABS, 19 tranches of eight RMBS and one tranche in one CLO. The rating action reflects the increased risk of a disorderly default of Greece on its debt, the agency notes, which would increase the likelihood of high severity .......

    News Round-up 14 November 2011

  • Punch bonds pressured as downgrades hit

    Fitch has cut its ratings on the Punch A and Punch B pub securitisations by between two to four notches, with the most meaningful impact being the removal of the Punch B class A notes from the iBoxx investment grade index. While not unexpected given the agency's revised criteria for UK whole business transactions (SCI passim), some technical selling pressure .......

    News Round-up 11 November 2011

  • Key macroeconomic SF influencers listed

    S&P has identified the five top macroeconomic factors which it believes are most relevant to credit quality. The agency says unemployment, home price behaviour, GDP, equity returns and corporate credit risk premium are the factors most relevant to its global structured finance securities ratings actions.

    "We selected our top five factors by examining correlations among economic variables and their sensitivities .......

    News Round-up 10 November 2011

  • Aussie act 'could be credit negative'

    The Australian Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (PPSA), due to take effect around February 2012, could be credit negative for transactions parties, warns Moody's. The PPSA will replace 70 state and federal acts as well as eliminating more than 30 individual securities registers and apply to a host of securitised assets and structures.

    "It is going to broaden the purview .......

    News Round-up 10 November 2011

  • SF deals to feel eurozone crisis effects

    Whilst the expected default of Greece is "affordable", a final resolution of the Greek sovereign situation will not be enough to stabilise the rest of the region, which may have indirect inlays to structured finance transactions in the affected regions, says Fitch in a new report.

    "We continue to believe that the crisis will be protracted, but we still don't .......

    News Round-up 10 November 2011

  • Euro ABS trader hired

    Paolo Binarelli has joined Banca IMI's securitised products and loan trading desk in Milan, headed by Roberto Lucchini. In his new role, he will trade ABS and MBS.

    Binarelli previously worked as a portfolio manager at P&G SGR Alternative Investments.

    .......

    Job Swaps 9 November 2011

  • Cat bond issuance increasing, diversifying

    There were four catastrophe bond issuances in 3Q11, representing US$676m of new risk capital, notes Willis Capital Markets & Advisory in its latest ILS market update.

    The last quarter also saw a French energy company sponsor a corporate cat bond for the first time since 2007. Willis says the success of this deal combined with recent loss activity and the increasing .......

    News Round-up 9 November 2011

  • US SF losses 'surprising'

    Losses are high in the most maligned US structured finance sectors, but surprisingly low in other segments, says Fitch. By far the most losses are being seen in RMBS and CDOs, although consumer ABS has performed well.

    Fitch says RMBS and related structured finance CDOs have the most realised and expected future credit losses, while consumer ABS products such as .......

    News Round-up 9 November 2011

  • Trader networking site launched

    A beta website that offers fixed income market professionals a free venue to network and generate trade ideas has been launched by former FGIC executive, Alex Masri. BondsOdds.com offers market news, blog posts and community-driven bond-pricing thoughts. Information can be shared publicly or anonymously.

    Having left broker-dealer Odeon Capital earlier this year where he focussed on European and Middle-Eastern fixed .......

    Job Swaps 8 November 2011

  • GAM launches new cat bond fund

    Alternative investment manager GAM has launched a UCITs-compliant fund investing in securitised insurance risks via a portfolio of 40 to 50 catastrophe bonds. The fund, named GAM Star Cat Bond, aims to deliver stable and attractive cash plus returns that are not impacted by the volatility and performance of more traditional equity and fixed income instruments.

    The fund, which is .......

    News Round-up 7 November 2011

  • US law firm adds three

    Daniel Passage has joined Bingham McCutchen's structured transactions practice group as partner in its Los Angeles office. Passage has nearly two decades of experience advising issuers, underwriters and financial institutions on complex finance transactions, with an emphasis on securitisation and structured finance. He also advises issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements of equity, debt and convertible securities. .......

    Job Swaps 3 November 2011

  • Marked improvement for US card collateral

    The performance of receivables backing US credit card ABS transactions improved markedly in 3Q11, says S&P. However, SIFMA data shows the US$165.4bn of credit card ABS outstanding is less than half of its 2008 peak and S&P expects this to continue shrinking.

    A new report by the rating agency shows loss rates fell to their lowest level since 2007 during .......

    News Round-up 3 November 2011

  • Sapient lands ED construction role

    Sapient Global Markets has been mandated to construct the European Data Warehouse, the first European central ABS data repository owned and operated by the market for the market. The Warehouse is endorsed by the Eurosystem (SCI 21 April).

    Once constructed, the Warehouse will process, verify and transmit data for the benefit of originators, investors, data providers and other interested parties. .......

    News Round-up 1 November 2011

  • PPIF performance declines

    Third-quarter PPIP data released by the US Treasury indicates weaker returns across all eight PPIFs. Net time-weighted cumulative returns since inception were down by 5%-14% across the funds, with Blackrock and RLJ Western Asset faring the best.

    ABS analysts at Barclays Capital point out that the weak performance should not be surprising, given the sell-off in the non-agency markets in .......

    News Round-up 1 November 2011

  • LatAm ABS fared well through crisis

    Fitch reports that the global credit crisis has had minimal impact in Latin America when compared to the US and Europe.

    Similar to the general economic impact in the region, the majority of the Latin American structured finance market was relatively unscathed. Rating stability was widespread across asset classes and throughout each country, except Mexico, the rating agency says.

    Cross-border .......

    News Round-up 1 November 2011

  • Tobacco-backed trusts on negative watch

    S&P has placed its ratings on 86 classes from 23 tobacco settlement-backed securitisations on credit watch negative. The tranches are backed by payments from participating manufacturers (PMs) under the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).

    Tobacco securitisations are independent of the issuing municipality and are backed solely by payments made by the PMs under the MSA. Under the agreement, the .......

    News Round-up 31 October 2011
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