Complete news archive

  • SCI Start the Week - 3 June

    A review of securitisation activity over the past seven days

    Transactions of the week
    The buy-to-let RMBS market continues to see heavy issuance in Europe with two new transactions marketing this week (SCI 29 May). One is a prime inaugural securitisation from UK marketplace lending firm LendInvest, while the other is a deal backed by nonprime BTL mortgages from two previous securitisations.

    LendInvest's debut £259.2m buy-to-let RMBS transaction .......

    News 3 June 2019

  • Bank nabs CLO expert

    Company hires and sector developments

    Mizuho has hired Stefan Stefanov as director, Euro CLO specialist and he will report in to Juan-Carlos Martorell and Andrew Feachem in the securitised products and structured finance team. Stefanov will join in July from Commerzbank where he was director in the treasury investment office. In this newly created role, he will be performing a structuring, origination and syndication .......

    Market Moves 31 May 2019

  • STS not yet 'embraced'

    Ambiguity stifling STS label success

    Uptake of the STS label has been tentative and cannot be credited with the current strong momentum in the European ABS sector. This is according to some market participants, which also suggest that greater investor support may be needed for the STS label to flourish.

    Sam Ellis, svp at Maples Group, comments: “ESMA publishes all STS compliant transactions but it .......

    News Analysis 31 May 2019

  • Pillar prepped

    Public Greek NPL ABS debuts

    DBRS has provided the first public rating for a non-performing loan securitisation in Greece as the market awaits European Commission approval for the HFSF’s asset protection scheme. Dubbed Pillar Finance, the transaction is backed by a €2bn portfolio of principally secured residential mortgage NPLs.

    Alessio Pignataro, svp at DBRS, notes: “The transaction has a double-B rating, so it .......

    News Analysis 31 May 2019

  • NPL securitisations eyed

    Fire, StormHarbour JV granted license

    Greek authorities have granted a license to EuPraxis, the joint venture between Italian servicer Fire and StormHarbour. It is the first cross-asset licence for an independent servicer and non-performing loan securitisation will be a key area of focus.

    George Kofinakos, md at StormHarbour and chairman of the board at EuPraxis, states: “Fire and StormHarbour have decided to combine .......

    News Analysis 31 May 2019

  • Indian RMBS market in the works?

    Sector developments and company hires

    Alt sales head hired

    Schroders has hired Peter Arnold to lead its alternative sales unit, which was established last year and focuses on the distribution of the firm’s private assets investment offering, which includes ILS and securitised credit. He reports to Schroders global head of distribution John Troiano and global head of private assets Georg Wunderlin. Arnold was .......

    Market Moves 30 May 2019

  • SCI podcast - episode 7 now live

    All the most pressing topics in structured finance discussed

    The latest edition of the SCI podcast is now live. This month, we take a look at servicing within subprime auto ABS and also how consolidation is becoming a running theme, with several acquisitions of smaller, regional issuers’ portfolios having been witnessed recently.

    As well as this, the podcast explores the student loan crisis in the US, asking the question, will servicers .......

    News 30 May 2019

  • Morgan indicted

    CMBS properties to be forfeited upon conviction

    The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York has issued a 114-count superseding indictment charging Robert Morgan, Frank Giacobbe, Todd Morgan and Michael Tremiti with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud in a US$500m mortgage fraud scheme. KBRA has identified 11 CMBS loans with an unpaid principal balance of US$264.4m that are secured by properties .......

    News 30 May 2019

  • BTL RMBS market surging

    UK RMBS sector continues to thrive

    The buy-to-let RMBS market continues to see heavy issuance in Europe with two new transactions marketing this week. One is a prime inaugural securitisation from UK marketplace lending firm LendInvest, while the other is a deal backed by nonprime BTL mortgages from two previous securitisations.

    LendInvest’s debut £259.2m buy-to-let RMBS transaction is dubbed Mortimer BTL 2019-1 and is backed by .......

    News 29 May 2019

  • Agency acquisition announced

    Sector developments and company hires

    Agency acquisition

    Morningstar has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DBRS, the world’s fourth-largest credit ratings agency, for a purchase price of US$669m. The combination of DBRS with Morningstar Credit Ratings’ US business will expand global asset class coverage and provide an enhanced platform for providing investors with leading fixed-income analysis and research. Morningstar intends to fund the transaction with a mix of .......

    Market Moves 29 May 2019

  • MPL ABS dissected

    Rating agencies clash over sector

    US marketplace loan (MPL) ABS transactions have seen steadily declining credit enhancement (CE) that isn’t justified by performance on the transactions or other factors, according to a recent comment from Fitch. Coming out in defence of the sector, KBRA says that it has seen considerable improvements over a number of years and that this has led to widespread acceptance among .......

    News 29 May 2019

  • Interpretation issues

    Credit Suisse completes capital relief trade

    Credit Suisse has completed its first capital relief trade of the year, dubbed Elvetia Finance series 2019-1. The Sfr336m eight-year CLN references a Sfr5.6bn Swiss SME portfolio and is a replacement trade for Elvetia Finance series 2016-1, following the call of the transaction in May (see SCI’s capital relief trades database).

    The deal attracted healthy investor interest .......

    News 29 May 2019

  • Investible assets

    Trade finance solution to enable institutional access

    Allianz Global Investors and HSBC are collaborating on a programme designed to make trade finance easily accessible to institutional investors. Dubbed Starts, the solution utilises securitisation technology to wrap loans into investible notes.

    Although banks collectively provide almost US$10trn of trade finance to companies annually, the small secondary market for these assets - estimated at about US$300bn - .......

    News 29 May 2019

  • STS SRTs pending

    EBA to publish discussion paper on synthetic criteria

    The EBA is set to publish a discussion paper on STS criteria for synthetic securitisations in September, which is expected to further facilitate significant risk transfer through provisions for excess spread and triggers from pro-rata to sequential amortisation (SCI 22 June 2018). However, uncertainty over the risk weights for retained tranches persists.

    EBA sources believe that the .......

    News Analysis 29 May 2019

  • Co-cio and liquid markets head appointed

    Company hires and sector developments

    Credit expert poached

    Crestline Investors has appointed Michael Aingorn as an md, based in New York and reporting to Keith Williams, managing partner - credit strategies. Aingorn was previously a partner at American Industrial Partners, where he helped launch the firm's credit opportunities strategy focused on investing in North American-based middle-market industrial companies. Prior to AIP, he worked at BTG .......

    Market Moves 24 May 2019

  • Seeking warmer waters

    Growing numbers of CLO issuers list on CSX

    While CLO issuers are not legally obliged to list their CLO on any exchange, the favourite in recent years has been the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE). However, some now suggest that, particularly following the introduction of European market abuse regulations, other exchanges have seen an increase in CLO listings.

    Nicole Pineda, partner, Harneys banking and finance team comments: .......

    News Analysis 24 May 2019

  • LeaseCo boost

    Foundation laid for leasing NPL ABS

    Amendments to Italy’s securitisation law are expected to boost securitisations of non-performing leasing assets, with at least two transactions being readied for this year. Leasing NPL securitisations are rare, with the underlying assets of most NPL ABS being either corporate or SME loans.

    Annalisa Dentoni-Litta, partner at Orrick, explains: “The amendments allow for the creation of ancillary SPVs .......

    News Analysis 24 May 2019

  • Risk transfer round-up - 24 May

    CRT sector developments and deal news

    Santander is believed to be readying a capital relief trade consisting of auto loans for 2Q19. The Spanish lender’s last auto risk transfer transactions were closed in November and December of last year (see SCI’s capital relief trades database).

    In November 2018, the bank completed KIMI 7, a €665.3m true sale securitisation of Finnish auto loans. In December, Santander .......

    News 24 May 2019

  • Enforcement incentive?

    CMBS 2.0 downgrade 'likely'

    While a loan event of default has occurred on the Maroon loan backing Elizabeth Finance 2018-1, performance of the portfolio backing the loan is still stable. Despite this, some suggest that the ratings outlook on the transaction is unlikely to be favourable and add that senior noteholders may be incentivised to push the servicer to sell the underlying properties .......

    News Analysis 23 May 2019

  • Positive performance prompts upgrades

    Sector developments and company hires

    Director hired to rebranded CLO platform

    DFG Investment Advisers has hired John Hwang as a director and senior credit analyst on its leveraged credit team, responsible for analysing below-investment grade credit with a focus on leveraged loans for the Vibrant CLO platform. Hwang has 18 years of experience in the financial services industry and was previously an svp at Crescent .......

    Market Moves 22 May 2019

  • Implied volatility leads the way

    Realised outpaced across European indices

    The broad-based rally in credit in recent weeks is also driving up European credit option volatility away from the lows of the year. At the same time, implied volatility is outpacing realised.

    European credit research analysts at JPMorgan note in a report published last week: “Credit implied volatility rose sharply over the past couple of weeks, with iTraxx .......

    News 22 May 2019
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