Complete news archive

  • Islamic finance head hired

    Fitch has appointed Bashar Al Natoor as global head of Islamic finance, based in Dubai. In this new role, he will coordinate all Islamic finance activities and expertise across Fitch's sovereign, financial institutions, corporate, structured finance, infrastructure and insurance teams.

    Since joining the agency, Al Natoor has overseen Fitch's sukuk criteria and Islamic finance practices, undertaken research and written numerous .......

    Job Swaps 17 February 2015

  • ILS valuations firm founded

    Former AIG Americas chief risk officer Kevin Huang has founded a firm specialising in risk analysis to facilitate the rapid growth of the insurance-linked securities market. Huang & Associates Analytics (HAA) aims to facilitate the convergence between reinsurance and capital markets through sophisticated analytics, advanced data visualisation, easy-to-use reporting tools and fair market valuation.

    Using a patent-pending mark-to-market approach, HAA .......

    Job Swaps 17 February 2015

  • Euro ABS/MBS keeps calm

    As anticipated with the US holiday the European/ABS secondary market was reasonably calm yesterday and that has extended into this morning despite the news around Greece.

    "We've not seen much action since the Greek discussions collapsed," says one trader. "Overall spreads have remained pretty stable."

    The trader continues: "For the moment the market is quiet, though we're hopeful it'll take .......

    SCIWire 17 February 2015

  • Share issuance completed

    Fair Oaks Income Fund has raised approximately US$39.7m - before costs and expenses - through the issue of 40 million new ordinary shares (SCI 10 February). Admission of the new shares to the London Stock Exchange's Specialist Fund Market is scheduled for 19 February. As a result of the issue, the company's issued share capital will consist of 161,898,362 ordinary .......

    Job Swaps 16 February 2015

  • Delinquencies at post-recession low

    New US CMBS delinquencies began 2015 at a post-recession low, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. CMBS late-pays finished January at just US$274m, down from US$554m in December and a peak of US$6.6bn in January 2010.

    Total outstanding delinquencies finished last month at US$17.9bn, down by US$517m from US$18.4bn at year-end 2014. Resolutions in January outpaced new .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • UK servicer acquisitions eyed

    Changes in ownership of UK residential mortgage servicers can create uncertainties about post-acquisition strategy and operations, as well as the effect on servicers' stability and performance, according to Fitch. The agency adds that the financial and operational support and strategic direction provided by new owners are key to the ratings impact of unprecedented numbers of acquisitions in the sector.

    The .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • Renewal risk highlighted

    American Express is set to end its US co-brand relationship with Costco Wholesale Corporation on 31 March 2016. AMXCA charge-offs and delinquencies could rise as a result, although the move is expected to have a negligible impact on the ratings of American Express Credit Account Master Trust and American Express Issuance Trust II credit card ABS.

    Costco cards account for .......

    News 16 February 2015

  • CMBS credit enhancement rising

    Declining US CMBS deal metrics in 4Q14 have set the stage for higher credit enhancement levels in 2015, according to Fitch. Last quarter saw a sizeable jump in Fitch-quoted credit enhancement for triple-A (up by 103bp) and triple-B minus (32bp) rated CMBS tranches.

    Driving Fitch's increase in CMBS credit enhancement were deals that had poorer debt service coverage ratios and .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • New challenges, heights for China

    S&P suggests that securitisation in China could reach new heights in 2015, with market-driven initiatives and more flexibility in the issuance review process likely to facilitate the growth. At the same time, the agency expects that as the country shifts towards a less regulated market, the importance of self-governance and responsibility will grow.

    "2015 could build on the momentum generated .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • MSR portfolios hit the market

    MountainView Servicing Group is advising Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae on the sale of a MSR portfolio with approximately US$3bn of unpaid principal balance. Bids for the portfolio are due by 19 February.

    The portfolio comprises 100% fixed-rate first lien assets, with a weighted average original FICO score of 755, a weighted average original loan-to-value ratio of 80%, a weighted .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • Euro CLO BWICs building

    The auction calendar for European CDOs/CLOs is building strongly for this week.

    Increasing secondary CDO/CLO activity in most sectors and parts of the capital structure was seen last week and is now being reflected in the BWIC schedule. There are currently six lists containing 37 European bonds due for trade this week.

    The only auction scheduled so far for today .......

    SCIWire 16 February 2015

  • RFC issued on CCP rule

    The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have published for comment proposals on the rule for national mandatory central counterparty clearing of derivatives. The rule describes requirements for CCP clearing of OTC derivatives transactions and is intended to improve transparency in the derivatives market while enhancing systemic risk mitigation.

    The proposal is divided into two rule-making areas. First, the determination of derivatives .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • RMBS origination platform unveiled

    Venn Partners is to establish a new residential mortgage origination platform in the Netherlands and plans to boost its Dutch mortgage lending to €1bn by the end of 2015. Marc De Moor has been recruited to lead the new platform.

    De Moor was previously an executive director of Argenta and ceo of Argenta Nederland. With De Moor leading the new .......

    Job Swaps 16 February 2015

  • Trups default drop minimal

    US bank Trups CDO combined defaults and deferrals marginally decreased to 21% at end-January, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. This compares with 21.1% at end-December.

    In January, four banks representing US$35m of notional in six CDOs cured. Additionally, three previously cured banks representing US$18m of notional in three CDOs redeemed their Trups.

    There were no new .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • Derivatives skew for large list

    A large non-agency RMBS BWIC hit the market on Friday with a significantly greater volume of derivatives than in other recent lists. The US$2.6bn current face list totalled 130 bonds, of which 62% were IOs, 22% were P&I and 16% were inverse IOs.

    The P&I portion of the list mainly comprised POA bonds, although there was also Alt-A, prime and .......

    News Round-up 16 February 2015

  • Entropics fund operational

    SEF Entropics Cat Bond Fund is now open to subscriptions, becoming the first fund specialised in catastrophe bond investments managed by a Scandinavian asset manager and the ninth cat bond fund globally to comply with UCITS regulations (SCI 10 December 2014). The first institutional investor in the fund is Movestic, part of the Chesnara Group. The fund will invest in .......

    Job Swaps 16 February 2015

  • SCI Start the Week - 16 February

    A look at the major activity in structured finance over the past seven days

    Pipeline
    It was an understandably quiet week for the pipeline as market participants attended the annual industry conference, ABS Vegas 2015. There were five new ABS announced, as well as three RMBS, two CMBS and two CLOs.

    The ABS were: US$265.94m CarFinance Capital Auto Trust 2015-1; US$1bn CarMax Auto Owner Trust 2015-1; US$265.1m DT Auto Owner Trust .......

    News 16 February 2015

  • Peripherals take attention

    Peripheral paper is receiving increased attention in the European ABS/MBS secondary market.

    On the back of strong prints on Friday and positive market tone at today's open, prices in major name peripheral bonds edged upwards first thing this morning. Focus revolved around Greek, Italian and Portuguese paper, though the former is likely to remain highly volatile.

    At the same time, .......

    SCIWire 16 February 2015

  • Law firm adds renewables expert

    Crowell & Moring has added Elliot Hinds as a partner in the firm's energy and corporate groups. He joins the firm from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he was a member of its global project finance group.

    Hinds has previous experience in renewable energy securitisations and will continue to cover this area for Crowell & Moring. He also .......

    Job Swaps 13 February 2015

  • Longevity swap facility created

    Artex Risk Solutions has partnered with PwC to create a new facility that provides pension funds with the opportunity to transfer their longevity risk cost-effectively and directly to the reinsurance market. Dubbed Iccaria, the facility is an incorporated cell company, which provides a structure enabling pension funds to select the service providers they wish to use to administer the arrangements. .......

    News Round-up 13 February 2015

  • Innovative ILS programme launched

    Kane SAC has listed its new ILS note programme on the Bermuda Stock Exchange. The programme has been set up with the addition of the EuroClear settlement system to facilitate secondary trading for catastrophe bonds by allowing investors to trade OTC using a recognisable system. The US$20.695m Dodeka I-2015 is the first issuance to use the new programme.

    .......

    News Round-up 13 February 2015
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