Complete news archive

  • Lack of occupancy triggers EOD

    The 129-131 Greene Street loan, securitised in GSMS 2014-GC26, has been transferred to special servicing due to an event of default caused by a tenant trigger event. Fitch designated the asset as a loan of concern last month.

    129-131 Greene Street is secured by a two-storey condo in New York City, 100% leased to a Google subsidiary on a 10-year triple-net .......

    News Round-up 23 December 2016

  • Flex mod programme 'credit neutral'

    The Flex modification programme announced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week (SCI 15 December) will have a neutral credit impact on the GSEs' credit risk transfer securitisations, says Moody's. The rating agency believes the volume of modifications and re-default performance under the Flex programme will be comparable to current levels and performance.

    The Flex programme has a formal .......

    News Round-up 23 December 2016

  • SLABS downgrades trump upgrades

    Moody's has this month concluded its review of transactions potentially affected by changes to its FFELP ABS methodology, published in the summer (SCI 15 June). Of the 504 tranches in 194 transactions that the agency took rating action on, there were 262 downgrades, 133 confirmations and 109 upgrades.

    The average downgrade magnitude was 5.2 notches and the average upgrade magnitude .......

    News Round-up 23 December 2016

  • RFC issued on FX risk

    S&P has requested comments on its methodology and assumptions for FX risk in structured finance transactions. The proposed FX risk criteria provide rating-specific asset depreciation stress assumptions for the behaviour of FX rates in global structured finance transactions with unhedged or partially hedged currency exposures.

    FX risk in securitisations arises when the asset cashflows and liabilities are denominated in different .......

    News Round-up 23 December 2016

  • Fleet ABS reviewed on criteria change

    Moody's has published its updated methodology for rating rental car and rental truck ABS, following an RFC on the approach (SCI 13 July). The agency has updated how it analyses certain risk factors - such as the sponsor probability of default, fleet composition, disposal value calculation, correlation and default risk horizon - while leaving the general framework unchanged. The revised .......

    News Round-up 23 December 2016

  • DOJ files suit, agrees settlements

    The US Department of Justice has filed a civil complaint in the Eastern District of New York against Barclays Bank and several of its US affiliates, alleging that the bank engaged in a fraudulent scheme to sell RMBS supported by defective and misrepresented mortgage loans. Separately, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have reached settlements in principle with the DOJ in .......

    Job Swaps 23 December 2016

  • Property prospects

    Hiring remains flat, but CMBS up-tick possible

    CMBS could provide a hiring boost in the US in 2017, while structured finance recruitment is likely to remain mostly flat globally. In the UK, senior hires are few and far between, but banks are still recruiting junior executives to develop smaller structuring teams.

    Chadrin Dean, president and managing partner for Sandford Rose Associates,
    Integrated Management, says that over the last .......

    News Analysis 23 December 2016

  • IRT internalisation completed

    RAIT Financial Trust has completed its transaction to internalise the management of Independence Realty Trust (IRT), following the sale of Independence Realty Advisors and certain assets of Jupiter Communities to IRT for US$43m (SCI passim). IRT has also repurchased all 7.3m shares of IRT common stock owned by certain RAIT subsidiaries for US$62.2m.

    As a result of the internalisation of .......

    Job Swaps 22 December 2016

  • Pension extension for OTC clearing

    The European Commission is extending transitional relief for pension scheme arrangements (PSAs) from central clearing of OTC derivative transactions until 16 August 2018. Without such an extension, PSAs would have to source cash for central clearing, which would require "very far-reaching and costly" changes to their business model and could therefore ultimately affect pensioners' income.

    The Commission believes CCPs need .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • Punch acquisition agreed

    Heineken UK has agreed a back-to-back deal with Patron Capital vehicle Vine Acquisitions to acquire Punch Securitisation A, which is secured by approximately 1,900 pubs across the UK. The move follows Vine Acquisitions' recommended cash offer of 180p per share for Punch Taverns, which operates over 3,000 pubs, valuing the company at £403m.

    Heineken UK will pay an aggregate consideration .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • EBRD lends weight to Greek push

    The EBRD is investing up to €50m in the senior notes of a Greek SME CLO dubbed Alpha Proodos. The underlying loans in the asset pool are originated by Alpha Bank of Greece.

    The securitised pool will have a one-year revolving period. The total CLO size is expected to be €640m, split between €320m in senior notes and €320m in .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • EIF in UK CRT first

    The EIF has signed a securitisation guarantee deal with RBS, providing capital relief on a £432m portfolio of UK SME and mid-cap loans in the healthcare sector. It is the EIF's ninth capital relief trade since 2015 but its first in the UK.

    EIF's guarantee allows RBS to release capital on a portfolio of over 1,900 loans. The freed-up capital .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • Class X appeal dismissed

    The English Court of Appeal has reached the same conclusion regarding the Titan CMBS class X claim as the High Court in April (SCI passim). Accordingly, the appeal by Credit Suisse Asset Management - the class X noteholder in the TITN 2006-1, 2006-2, 2007-2 and 2007-CT1 deals - has been dismissed.

    The class X noteholder had issued proceedings under Part .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • iHeart credit event called

    ISDA's Americas credit derivatives determinations committee has resolved that a failure to pay credit event occurred in respect of iHeart Communications. The move follows the company's failure to repay the principal amount of the US$57.1m 5.50% senior notes due 2016 held by Clear Channel Holdings. This is because iHeart is seeking to ensure that the aggregate principal amount of certain .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • Mesdag retranching rated

    Fitch and S&P have rated Commercial Mortgage Funding, a securitisation of a €27.9m portion of the €370.6m Mesdag (Delta) class A notes. The transaction is financed by the issuance of three long-dated pass-through principal-only notes, due January 2035.

    The notes comprise £23.4m BBB+/BBB class As, £2.2m BBB/BB+ class Bs and £2.2m BB/BB- class Cs. Mesdag (Delta), which is due in .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2016

  • Capital markets platform launched

    Liberty Mutual Insurance has created a new capital markets platform. Dubbed Limestone Capital Markets, it has been capitalised with around US$160m of investors' capital.

    The platform has launched an inaugural multi-year collateralised reinsurance transaction led by the new Bermuda domiciled firm, Limestone Re. It will provide exposure for investors in risks from US property catastrophe, US homeowners and London Market specialty insurance.

    .......

    Job Swaps 21 December 2016

  • ED appoints new ceo

    The European DataWarehouse (ED) has appointed Christian Thun as ceo, effective from 1 January 2017. He joined ED a year ago as coo (SCI 4 January) and has been responsible for leading data management, customer account management and research.

    Prior to joining ED, Thun spent 14 years at Moody's Analytics. He has also worked for Baetge & Partner and for .......

    Job Swaps 21 December 2016

  • Upwardly mobile

    Debut mobile ABS could be first of many

    The first UK mobile handset securitisation closed in November, signalling the beginning of a burgeoning mobile ABS sector in Europe. The £125m private deal was backed by consumer loans for the purchase of Virgin mobile handsets and arranged by Royal Bank of Canada, which worked with Virgin Mobile's owner, Liberty Global, to open up a much-desired asset class to a .......

    News Analysis 21 December 2016

  • State rescue?

    Nationalisation could delay BMPS securitisation

    The Italian parliament has approved €20bn to prop up the country's most fragile banks while it readies a possible state rescue of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS), its third largest lender. The parliamentary approval follows scepticism expressed by Atlante II over the terms of a bridge loan that is key to BMPS' planned €9.2bn NPL securitisation.

    The senior .......

    News Analysis 21 December 2016

  • Further FFELP ABS extended

    Navient has amended the transaction agreements for US$170m of ABS bonds backed by FFELP student loans. The amendments extended the legal final maturity date on the B tranches of SLC Student Loan Trust 2005-3, SLC Student Loan Trust 2006-1 and SLM Student Loan Trust 2005-8 to 2055, as well as the B tranche of SLM Student Loan Trust 2006-7 to .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2016

  • Primary servicing volumes up

    In its latest quarterly US RMBS Servicer Handbook, Fitch highlights the rapid growth of portfolios among smaller mortgage servicing companies. The portfolios of US special servicers with loan counts of less than 400,000 are growing at a faster pace than the servicing industry as a whole, according to the agency.

    These smaller special servicers reported an average year-over-year growth of .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2016
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