Complete news archive

  • Alt-A transactions assessed

    Fitch has reviewed all its alt-A transactions and taken rating actions on 760 of them. Total average expected mortgage losses have not changed much from its review a year ago, although some individual pools had significant loss revisions. In addition, home prices are expected to fall by a further 10%.

    From the 1,371 classes rated triple-A before the review, 93% .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • CARD Act to have little impact on ratings

    Fitch believes that new regulations restricting US credit card issuer fees are likely to reduce overall gross portfolio yield by approximately 10% from the record highs seen earlier in the year.

    The new rules follow the Federal Reserve Board's (FRB) final rule approval of 15 June in its implementation of the 2009 Credit Card Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act). .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Euro CMBS servicers under increasing pressure

    Fitch says that European CMBS servicers will come under increasing pressure as the volume of loans reaching their scheduled maturity dates continues to rise with little improvement in maturity outcomes. Maturity outcomes vary significantly by servicer, as do maturity profiles, the rating agency notes.

    "On one side of the spectrum you have the captive servicers, which show extremely positive maturity .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Majority of non-bank Aussie RMBS remain unredeemed

    S&P observes that 13 out of the 51 outstanding Australian prime RMBS transactions backed by housing loans of non-bank originators have passed their documented call dates and remain unredeemed. This contrasts with the experience prior to the global financial crisis, when almost all Australian RMBS were redeemed on reaching the call dates.

    "While the housing loan portfolios underlying Australian RMBS .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Credit card delinquencies reach 17-month low

    Fitch reports that US credit card ABS performance remains stable, with late stage delinquencies improving. Late payments improved for the fifth consecutive month. Fitch's 60-plus day delinquency index fell by 17bp to 4.01% to set a 17-month low in May, dipping below last year's average.

    Early stage delinquencies also improved for the third straight month, as 30-plus day delinquencies decreased .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • CDO recovery rate criteria updated

    Fitch has updated its global rating criteria for corporate debt-backed CDOs. The criteria report outlines the agency's approach to addressing the primary risk drivers of a corporate CDO, in which it considers the following factors as primary risk drivers: asset quality, asset security, portfolio composition and portfolio selection and management.

    Fitch's corporate CDO rating methodology is fundamentally unchanged from its .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Short- and long-term CPDO risks assessed

    Moody's has taken various rating actions on five CPDO transactions, reflecting its latest assessment of the evolution of the short- and long-term risks of the deals in the recent spread environment. Approximately US$125m of debt securities are affected in the move.

    The SURF CPDO Series 2, Thebes Capital Series 2007-1 and Cairn CPDO I Finance Series B1-U1 Turbo notes have .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Landmark CDO warning issued

    Moody's has downgraded the ratings of two tranches of notes issued by Landmark CDO. The rating agency says the move reflects its concerns about a potential event of default.

    Landmark CDO, issued in July 2001, is a CLO backed primarily by a portfolio of senior secured loans and managed by Aladdin Capital. In its latest review of the deal Moody's .......

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • Platform to increase OTC derivatives transparency

    In response to the prospect of increased OTC derivatives regulation, Bloomberg is offering a new valuation service designed to bring transparency. The new Bloomberg Derivatives Valuation Service, an extension of Bloomberg Valuation Services (BVAL), offers end-of-day valuations and risk measurements for OTC derivatives and structured products as well as over six million publicly available securities including bonds, mortgages and equities.

    News Round-up 7 July 2010

  • The unrecognised and unaddressed ratings issue

    Malay Bansal, md at NewOak Capital, suggests that credit rat...

    The most important and the most basic issue related to ratings and rating agencies has not been recognised or addressed in reforms announced so far. Here's a new idea on a practical solution to address this most fundamental issue, which also addresses the conflict of interest issue that has received the most attention so far.

    Rating agencies have been criticised .......

    Research Notes 7 July 2010

  • Crown Castle deal adds to hybrid interest

    Crown Castle International is due with US$1.55bn of Senior Secured Tower Revenue Notes, which marks its second securitisation this year. The deal, which is led by Morgan Stanley, consists of US$250m, US$300m and US$1bn tranches.

    The notes are backed by equity interest in the special purpose entities that own or lease the cell towers. The notes are expected to close .......

    News Round-up 4 July 2010

  • SIV outlooks revised following error

    S&P has revised its outlooks on its issuer credit ratings on four Citibank-sponsored SIVs: Beta Finance Corp, Centauri Corp, Dorada Corp and Five Finance Corp. The rating action corrects an error the agency made in February.

    Citibank has an agreement with each vehicle to provide them with funds to meet repayments on the senior debt when it becomes due. In .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • FFELP student loan ratings reviewed

    Fitch is to review its ratings on US FFELP student loan ABS bonds, including subordinated bonds, and apply updated surveillance criteria. A refined basis risk approach will be used and the review will encompass trusts with Libor floater bonds only, while other structures will be reviewed later when the criteria are expanded.

    Ratings on subordinate bonds without overcollateralisation from trusts .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • CRE CDO upgraded on correction

    Moody's has upgraded five classes of notes issued by G-Star 2002-1, due to a correction in the inputs that it used in its prior analysis of the deal. The agency says the action occurs despite an overall decline in the credit quality of the pool and impacts approximately US$150.5m of securities. The move comes amid Moody's on-going surveillance of CRE .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • CDOs land additional appraisal firm

    The indentures of Fortress Credit Funding III and IV have been amended to allow Deloitte Financial Advisory Services to act as an additional approved appraisal firm on the transactions. The addition of Deloitte is intended to further diversify appraisers regarding commercial real estate valuations.

    Moody's says it has been informed that the issuer did not receive any objections from a .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • France, Greece push sovereign CDS wider

    Global CDS spreads are widening once more, says Fitch Solutions. Sovereigns are leading the trend by widening almost 5% last week, while financials widened an average of 2.2%.

    Global CDS widened by 2%. Greece finished the week at 904bp, while France was also wide.

    "CDS on Greece are at their widest level since the start of the sovereign crisis," says .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • New CDS sector indices launched

    S&P has launched a series of CDS sector indices, which seek to track the credit default swap market for a select number of corporate credits in distinct GICS sectors and sub industries and hence increase transparency. The indices may be country-specific or global in nature, offering the independence of the S&P CDS Index Committee and third-party pricing.

    Each index is .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • RFC issued on enhanced fair value proposal

    IASB has published for public comment further enhancements to a disclosure proposal on Level 3 fair value measurements that formed part of its exposure draft, 'Fair Value Measurement', published in May 2009.

    In that exposure draft, the IASB proposed a three-level fair value hierarchy that categorises observable and non-observable market data used as inputs for fair value measurements. According to .......

    News Round-up 30 June 2010

  • Derivatives partner recruited

    Robert McLaughlin has joined Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson as a partner in its asset management and financial services practices. He was most recently the co-chair of the structured products practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman.

    McLaughlin's practice concentrates on financial transactions with an emphasis on OTC derivatives, structured products, synthetic investments and credit extensions, as well as derivatives claim .......

    Job Swaps 30 June 2010

  • Boutique lands senior advisor

    Richard Atterbury has joined structured finance boutique AgFe in a senior advisory capacity. He was previously chair of EMEA investment at Nomura Holdings. Before that, he was co-head of European capital markets at Lehman Brothers and an md at Morgan Stanley.

    .......

    Job Swaps 30 June 2010

  • Boutique adds three in sales

    The PrinceRidge Group has hired three new team members to its structured products desk in the firm's newly opened Chicago branch.

    Tom Connors joins PrinceRidge as an md, structured products sales and the head of its Chicago branch. Connors brings over 25 years of experience to PrinceRidge, where he is responsible for covering institutional clients focusing on structured product sales .......

    Job Swaps 30 June 2010
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