Complete news archive

  • Fitch to comply with amended SEC rules

    Fitch has confirmed its compliance with a number of amendments to rules governing the regulation of credit rating agencies that are registered as Nationally Recognised Statistical Rating Organisations (NRSRO), which were adopted by the US SEC on 4 December 2009. Amendments to Rule 240 17g-5 involve the sharing of information used in assigning structured finance ratings that passes between mandated .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Greece sovereign CDS divergence explained

    Greece's sovereign CDS liquidity significantly diverged from the broader developed market sovereign liquidity trend between June and August 2009, and was accompanied by the beginning of a sustained market switch to US dollar- rather than euro-denominated Greek sovereign CDS contracts, according to a new report by Fitch Solutions. Increased CDS market uncertainty on the prospects for the country's economy pushed .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Structured credit pro hired

    Heritage Capital has appointed Rolf Friedrich as md in the capital markets group covering Germany and Austria. He is based in London and reports to joint ceos Joseph Dryer and Peter Horbye.

    Friedrich joins the firm from LBBW in London, where he was head of international sales, responsible for expanding LBBW's capital market activities outside Germany. He joined LBBW in .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Pub's new strategy branded credit-negative

    Fitch says the new strategic programme announced on 24 March by Mitchells & Butlers Group (M&B), the managed pub operator behind the Mitchells & Butlers Finance whole business securitisation, is potentially credit negative. The rating agency affirmed the transaction's bond ratings on 19 February, five days before M&B unveiled its new strategy, and its assessment does not comment on the .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • EM credit trading desk prepped

    Macquarie Group is believed to have hired two senior traders from Citi ahead of its launch of an emerging markets credit trading desk in London. Steve Gooden and Thomas Blondin are expected to be appointed to newly-created roles in the coming weeks, trading cash instruments and CDS referencing emerging market sovereigns.

    .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Euro CMBS loan repayments to remain low

    Repayment of matured European CMBS loans is expected to remain at low levels until at least the end of the year due to the loans' high loan-to-value ratios (LTVs), according to Fitch. The rating agency has also launched its Maturity Repayment Index - which measures the proportion of the total matured loan balance that has been successfully repaid - and .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • New addition to boost US sales strategy

    Naseem Haffar has been hired as US head of loan sales and trading for SG CIB. Haffar has a wealth of experience selling credit instruments and joins the firm after more than 10 years with JP Morgan Securities, where he was credit sales md. He will be based in New York and report regionally to Arnaud Achour, head of capital .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Moody's assesses SF rating rule implications

    Moody's says it is developing mechanisms in order to comply with the SEC's amended rule 17g-5 for credit rating agencies registered as NRSROs that are hired by issuers, sponsors or arrangers to assign credit ratings to structured finance products. Specifically, the rating agency will assess how the rule - announced in December 2009 - will apply to transactions and ratings .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Boutique adds in Euro ABS sales

    Jefferies has hired Cyril Paillard as md in MBS/ABS sales in Paris, covering institutional clients in France and Northern Europe. He has eighteen years of industry experience and joins from RBS, where he was EMEA head of credit structured products and solutions sales. He has previously worked for ABN AMRO as head of fixed income sales and EMEA head of .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Rating agencies act on Ambac

    Moody's has lowered the rating of the senior unsecured debt of Ambac Financial Group to single-C from Ca, and placed the Caa2 insurance financial strength ratings (IFSR) of Ambac Assurance Corporation (AAC) on review for possible upgrade. Moody's also placed the Caa2 IFSR for Ambac Assurance UK Limited (AUK) on review with direction uncertain.

    The move comes as S&P revised .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • ABS flow trader recruited

    BNP Paribas has hired Llywelyn ap Gwilym as an ABS securities flow trader. He will join on Tuesday 6 April from Commerzbank, where he was a structured credit trader. He previously held a post at Dresdner Kleinwort as an ABS trader.

    .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • CLO amends WAR calculations

    A supplemental indenture has been entered into between Madison Park Funding I and the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, which deletes the words 'collateral portfolio' in the 'rating distribution' definition and inserts in their place the words 'aggregate principal balance'. The change represents a technical correction in the method of calculating the Moody's weighted average rating test.

    Moody's .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • REITs tap final TALF CMBS subscription

    Two REITs have announced TALF-funded CMBS investments ahead of today's (31 March) conclusion of the programme for legacy assets. Dynex Capital says it purchased US$45.8m in triple-A rated CMBS issued in 2004 and 2005 during the March subscription period, while Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (ARI) acquired triple-A rated CMBS totalling US$104.7m.

    Dynex borrowed US$38m for three years under TALF .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Student loan ABS set for cancellation

    Access to Loans for Learning Student Loan Corporation is seeking to amend the Eleventh Supplemental Indenture of the Student Loan Program Revenue Bonds (Series IV) transaction to allow it to purchase outstanding securities at par or at a discount with funds available in lieu of redemption under the indenture. If directed by the Corporation, securities could be purchased at a .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • FGIC spins off CDS exposure

    The second monoline to act last week to mitigate its CDS exposure following Ambac's move (see separate News Analysis), FGIC has announced a series of new measures. It plans to form a new, licensed New York financial guaranty insurance corporation subsidiary dubbed Drop Down Company, which will assume all of FGIC's rights, obligations and liabilities under the FGIC policies covering specified .......

    Job Swaps 31 March 2010

  • Stable growth expected for Euro ABCP market

    Fitch says the €40bn European ABCP market may see a return to stable growth during the remainder of 2010, after three years of declining issuance. The rating agency covers in its latest sector newsletter the likely impact of the revised Basel 2 guidelines on European ABCP conduits, the latest outstanding ABCP transactions and the underlying asset pool composition for all .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • 93% of Euro CLOs downgraded

    S&P has published an update of its rating transitions for European cashflow corporate CLOs to explain the effect on CLO ratings of revised criteria for CDOs and deterioration in the creditworthiness of the underlying collateral portfolio.

    As of 16 March 2010, S&P has completed its review of 128 of the 208 European CLOs it rates, accounting for 774 ratings, including .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Fitch publishes SF downgrade tally

    Global structured finance rating activity remained negative in 2009 as the economic downturn deepened and more broadly affected consumer and commercial credit quality, says Fitch.

    As in 2008, the RMBS and CDO sectors produced the majority of the year's downgrades (accounting for 83%), while the CMBS sector rose from 3% to 16% of the year's downgrade tally. ABS accounted for .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Continued bid

    Canadian ABS to survive BDC programme end

    Canadian securitisation is expected to survive after the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)'s credit facility for equipment and auto financing expires on 31 March. Similar to the US TALF programme, the Canadian Secured Credit Facility helped jumpstart an ABS new issue queue in the country in the wake of the credit crisis.

    Some market participants had expected the Canadian .......

    News Analysis 31 March 2010

  • Triple-A ratings possible for Greek SF deals

    Greek structured finance and covered bond transactions could achieve triple-A ratings, subject to sufficient protection being put in place, according to Moody's. However, the rating agency says a triple-A rating would be subject to three main conditions.

    First, the credit enhancement available to the transaction needs to be sufficient for the pool of collateral to withstand extreme scenarios, including those .......

    News Round-up 31 March 2010

  • Decisive action

    Market weighs consequences of Ambac restructuring

    ISDA has declared a bankruptcy credit event on Ambac Assurance Corporation (AAC) following a move by the monoline to segregate its liabilities for structured finance transactions into a separate account. In doing so, Ambac joins a growing number of its once-rivals in splitting the profitable part of the business from the non-profitable.

    It was at the direction of Ambac's regulator ......

    News Analysis 31 March 2010
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