Complete news archive

  • Office building CMBS due in market

    A CMBS transaction secured by leases from New York office building One Bryant Park is marketing. The US$650m offering, called OBP Depositor Trust 2010-OBP Commercial Mortgage Pass-Throughs, is to be rated triple-A by Fitch.

    Bank of America, the largest tenant in the building, is a part owner of the asset along with the Durst Organization. The building has a 96.9% .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Positive US credit card performance continues

    Collateral performance of the major US bank credit card trusts was generally positive for the May collection period, with charge-offs mixed but delinquencies, yield and excess spread markedly improving. ABS analysts at Barclays Capital note that they regard more highly the signal from falling delinquencies and believe this month's reports show continued fundamental improvement in credit performance.

    At the trust .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • JPMCC 2010-C1 strengths and risks analysed

    As part of its continuing efforts to provide insight to investors on structured finance transactions, S&P has commented on the US$716.3m J.P. Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust Series 2010-C1 (JPMCC 2010-C1) CMBS (see last issue). The rating agency says it has chosen to comment on this transaction - which appears to be the first conduit/fusion US CMBS since the .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Accounting survey reveals call for mixed method

    PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has surveyed a geographically diverse sample of investors and analysts to better understand their perspectives on accounting and reporting for financial instruments.

    The poll intended to discover views on the split between the IASB and FASB on accounting for financial instruments. The two accounting bodies set out jointly in 2008 to solve challenges highlighted by the global crisis, .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Oil and gas CDS liquidity spikes

    A notable spike in CDS liquidity among US oil and gas companies is being caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, says Fitch Solutions. Although global CDS liquidity has rebounded after a brief holiday-related decline earlier in the month, oil and gas companies in the Americas remain under pressure.

    Kerr-McGee Corporation is one notable month-to-month mover, with CDS spreads .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • SLCC I tender offer amended

    Student Loan Consolidation Center Student Loan Trust I (SLCC I) has waived the minimum aggregate principal amount of notes to be tendered under its up to US$450m buyback of outstanding auction rate student loan asset-backed notes, Senior Series 2002A and 2002-2A. It has also extended by a week the early tender deadline until 22 June, during which period Route 66 .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Buyback set to improve CDO's par value ratios

    Fortress Investment Group has proposed a partial repurchase of its Duncannon CRE CDO's class A notes. Fitch says that this will not in itself impact the rating of the notes.

    The rating agency notes that under the proposed buyback, the repurchase of £30.89m of the class A notes will be undertaken at a discounted purchase price. The notes will subsequently .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • CRE CDOs transferred in note redemption

    Gramercy Capital Corp has redeemed US$52.5m of junior subordinated notes issued by its operating partnership subsidiary. The transaction was completed by transferring to the noteholders an equivalent par value amount of various classes of bonds issued by the Gramercy Real Estate CDO 2005-1, 2006-1 and 2007-1 deals, previously purchased by the firm in the open market, and cash equivalents of .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Emerging markets ABS criteria updated

    Fitch has published updated criteria for rating asset securitisations in emerging markets, with a particular focus on the relevance of various sovereign ratings to a given transaction. The ratings of emerging market securitisations are capped at a maximum of two to four global scale notches above the relevant country's sovereign ceiling, as ABS in emerging markets are inevitably conditioned by .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Property sales prompt White Tower upgrade

    Fitch has upgraded the White Tower 2006-3 class A and B notes from A/B to AA/BB respectively, as well as placed the class A, B and C notes on rating watch positive (RWP). The upgrades reflect the announcement by special servicer CB Richard Ellis Loan Servicing (CBRELS) that two of the underlying properties being marketed as individual assets have been .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Agency clarifies use of rating caps

    Fitch has issued a new criteria report clarifying which circumstances might cause it to cap a rating when analysing a structured finance transaction. The report is intended to promote transparency and also describes which circumstances would prevent a transaction getting a rating.

    "There is a common assumption that, with sufficient credit enhancement, Fitch should be able to assign a triple-A .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Six CDPCs impacted by criteria review

    S&P has taken rating actions on six CDPCs, following the scheduled implementation of its updated criteria for rating such vehicles with corporate credit exposure.

    The rating agency lowered its long-term issuer credit rating (ICR) and class A and B issue ratings for Channel Capital; and placed its ICR and senior subordinate issue rating for Athilon, as well as its ICRs .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Stronger underwriting seen in CMBS

    The first new US CMBS transaction in two years, JPM 2010-C1 (see last issue), features the strong underwriting emblematic of the early days of the market, according to Fitch. However, the rating agency points out that time will tell if strong underwriting standards remain the case as more deals come to market.

    In rating JPM 2010-C1, Fitch found that the .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Uptick expected for US prime auto losses

    Delinquencies and losses on US prime auto loan ABS reached their lowest levels last month since the summer of 2007, mainly due to seasonal factors, according to Fitch. However, the rating agency says this improvement will not last.

    Fitch director Ben Tano says: "Performance will come under seasonal pressure during the slower summer months as the effects of tax returns .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • CRE prices back on the up

    Moody's says US CRE prices increased by 1.7% in April, according to its commercial property price indices. It is the first monthly rise since January. Prices nationally are 41.1% lower than their October 2007 peak, but have come back 4.7% from their low in October 2009.

    "Prices have remained choppy since October," says Moody's md Nick Levidy. "While prices have .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Euro CLO review completed

    S&P has completed its review of 1,371 ratings in 214 European cashflow CLO transactions. These included ratings placed on credit watch negative following the rating agency's corporate CDO criteria update, as well as a substantial number of ratings on (mostly subordinate) CLO tranches that had previously been placed on credit watch negative for performance reasons before the criteria update.

    Of .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • IO, prepayment rating practices revised

    Fitch has revised its global practice for assigning and maintaining structured finance ratings on interest-only securities (IOs) and prepayment certificates. The revised practice affects a variety of security types, including those commonly referred to as Class Ps, Class Rs, Class Xs, Class IOs and MERCs.

    IO-related securities are commonly featured in MBS transactions, particularly in the US. They typically provide .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Portuguese transactions on review

    Moody's has placed on review for possible downgrade Aaa and Aa ratings on 23 RMBS and three ABS backed by Portuguese asset pools. This review was triggered by its decision on 5 May to place on review for possible downgrade the Aa2 rating on Portugal's government bonds, as well as the ratings of the country's rated banks. The completion of .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Tobacco bonds under pressure

    Some US tobacco settlement ABS bonds are under downgrade pressure due to a significant decline in the master settlement agreement (MSA) payment amount in 2010 from 2009, says Fitch. The rating agency is reviewing all its tobacco settlement ABS transactions.

    The agency says some long-term turbo bonds and many capital appreciation bonds are vulnerable to downgrade, generally by one to .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Greek government-sponsored ABS downgraded

    Moody's has downgraded the ratings on two Greek government-sponsored transactions - Ariadne and Titlos - to Ba1 and Ba2 respectively. The move follows Moody's downgrade of the foreign and local currency ratings of the government of Greece to Ba1 from A3 on 14 June and concludes the review for possible downgrade of their ratings that the agency initiated on 27 .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010

  • Mixed performance from EMEA RMBS

    EMEA RMBS performance was stable during the first quarter of 2010, according to Fitch, but the agency notes that some performance concerns persist.

    Fitch says that loans in arrears by three or more months have been relatively stable for the last two quarters, excluding UK prime and Irish RMBS that continue to deteriorate. However, prepayment rates for EMEA RMBS have .......

    News Round-up 23 June 2010
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