Complete news archive

  • Home ownership 'faces challenges'

    Home ownership levels continue to drop in many countries, despite stable or positive outlooks for most mortgage markets, Fitch reports. As a result of market dislocations post-crisis, home ownership levels face challenges as large foreclosure pipelines are expected to displace owners in some countries such as the US, Spain and Ireland, while new lending remains well below pre-crisis levels - .......

    News Round-up 14 January 2015

  • Risk-sharing activity spikes

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have more than quadrupled their US risk-sharing presence year-over-year, according to Fitch's latest GSErisk-sharing trends report. The agency notes that performance of the transactions remains "exceptionally clean".

    Fannie and Freddie sold portions of credit risk on US residential mortgages of over US$369.7bn last year, a more than four-fold increase compared to the US$84.7bn seen in .......

    News Round-up 14 January 2015

  • Ocwen faces California allegations

    Ocwen says that it is fully cooperating with the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) to resolve an administrative action dated 3 October 2014 and has dedicated substantial resources towards satisfying the DBO's requests. The servicer believes it has effective controls in place to ensure compliance with the California Homeowners Bill of Rights and all single point of contact requirements .......

    Job Swaps 14 January 2015

  • Servicer transfer activity to 'pick up'

    Portfolios of the largest US RMBS servicers saw little movement over the last quarter, according to Fitch's latest index report for the sector. The agency notes that this trend could change in 2015, however.

    Fitch observed little movement among the five largest bank and non-bank servicers across their portfolios of agency, non-agency, owned portfolio and third-party servicing in Q4. This .......

    News Round-up 14 January 2015

  • Citi settlement progresses

    RMBS trustees have accepted Citigroup's US$1.125bn settlement for all but seven deal-groups (across four deals) of the 68 trusts involved and have filed for judicial instruction. Given the high degree of similarity between the Citi and JPMorgan settlements, as well as the fact that the same judge is presiding over both cases, Barclays Capital RMBS strategists indicate that the procedure .......

    Job Swaps 14 January 2015

  • Coherence strengthens risk function

    Coherence Capital Partners has appointed John Lovisolo as member, coo and chief risk officer. He previously spent 10 years at Barclays, most recently as md and co-head of prime brokerage origination, but he also ran investment grade debt and structured credit products sales for the first half of his tenor. Prior to Barclays, Lovisolo was at Deutsche Bank and Bear .......

    Job Swaps 14 January 2015

  • MBS vet recruited

    Gregory Finck has joined Morgan Stanley Investment Management as md, portfolio manager and head of the securitised team for global fixed income. As well as undertaking portfolio management of the Morgan Stanley Mortgage Securities Trust, he will focus on securitised asset research and portfolio management for the firm's Global Mortgage Strategy.

    Finck has 22 years of experience managing credit and .......

    Job Swaps 14 January 2015

  • Euro BWICs build but flow patchy

    The European ABS, MBS and CLO BWIC schedule is building up a head of steam this week, but flow trading is still intermittent.

    "We saw a few more BWICs yesterday and there was strong execution across deal types - not just prime RMBS, but also in UK non-conforming, CLOs and CMBS," says one trader. "There are more BWICs scheduled today, .......

    SCIWire 14 January 2015

  • Store closures prompt performance concerns

    JC Penney and Macy's have disclosed that they will respectively close 39 and 14 stores this year, including 15 properties backing US$479m of CMBS loans. Certain property closures could accelerate the performance divergence between dominant class A malls and inferior malls.

    Barclays Capital CMBS analysts note that four malls losing JCP as an anchor tenant are represented in 2011 and 2012 .......

    News 13 January 2015

  • Tiers for US CLOs

    The US CLO market is picking up speed, but energy exposure continues to create price tiering.

    "It was quiet again yesterday, but we're seeing a lot more activity today," says one trader. "However, there's no real direction as a lot of people are still sitting on the sidelines waiting to see where spreads clear."

    Levels of energy exposure within CLOs remains .......

    SCIWire 13 January 2015

  • Further Freddie credit risk transferred

    Freddie Mac has closed its first three Agency Credit Insurance Structure (ACIS) transactions of 2015, through which it obtained a number of insurance policies as part of the GSE's continued efforts to transfer credit risk to private capital market investors and global reinsurers. The three transactions transfer much of the remaining credit risk associated with three STACR deals executed in .......

    News Round-up 13 January 2015

  • Regulatory and compliance practice formed

    Duff & Phelps has acquired Kinetic Partners, a move which will see it create a dedicated financial regulatory and compliance practice. The firm aims to leverage Kinetic Partners' recognised leadership in providing regulatory consulting and compliance counsel to the financial services industry.

    Kinetic Partners founder Julian Korek will lead the new financial regulatory and compliance practice. Kinetic Partners' corporate recovery, .......

    Job Swaps 13 January 2015

  • Executive shuffle for trust company

    First Names Group has appointed Cengiz Somay as group ceo, replacing Morgan Jubb, who will assume the role of group executive chair. Current executive chair Declan Kenny will assume the role of group executive director, with a primary focus on the firm's expansion into Asia and its leisure division.

    Somay originally joined the firm in June 2014 as group md .......

    Job Swaps 13 January 2015

  • Lower loss severities continue

    The amount of US CMBS loans disposed with a loss in December stayed consistent month-over-month in that it remained lower than average, Trepp reports. The total disposed loan balance registered US$670m last month, down slightly from November's US$676.4m, with loss severities standing at 50.26% (versus November's 56.84%).

    The loss list was headlined by the US$80.5m Pier at Caesars loan securitised .......

    News Round-up 13 January 2015

  • Record CLO issuance tallied

    Last year saw record CLO issuance, with 237 transactions worth US$123.8bn pricing, according to Appleby's latest CLO Insider report. The second half of 2014 saw 121 CLOs price for a total of US$61.8bn, keeping pace with a strong first six months in which 116 CLOs accounted for US$62bn of issuance.

    The average deal size for CLOs priced in 2014 was .......

    News Round-up 13 January 2015

  • European ABS/MBS better supported

    As activity levels slowly increase in European ABS/MBS investor appetite appears to be holding up.

    "Activity levels are again a bit better today," says one trader. "There are a few BWICs scheduled for this afternoon and the pipeline is building, but secondary is active this morning and the market is a little bit better supported."

    Even previously dormant sectors are .......

    SCIWire 13 January 2015

  • ILS exec recruited

    StormHarbour Securities has named Jonathan Spry md and head of insurance solutions and advisory in London. Originating and executing ILS and securitisations are among his responsibilities in the new role.

    Spry was previously head of UK insurance coverage at RBS and before that was svp at Guy Carpenter and director, ILS at S&P. He began his career as an analyst .......

    Job Swaps 13 January 2015

  • Non-agency supply rises

    US non-agency RMBS BWIC activity was up to over US$150m yesterday. SCI's PriceABS data captured more than 70 unique line items, all of which come from 2003-2009 vintages.

    The increased supply appears to have traded in line with dealer price talk. A US$466m liquidation has also been announced for today.

    The earliest-vintage tranche picked up by .......

    Market Reports 13 January 2015

  • Structured products co-head named

    Mitsubishi UFJ Securities has appointed Alex Pierre as international co-head of structured products in London. He was previously at UBS since June 2006, most recently as global product head, credit and financing structuring. He has also been head of structured credit, secured funding, repackaging and EM structuring and co-head of credit derivatives structuring at the bank. Before joining UBS, Pierre .......

    Job Swaps 13 January 2015

  • TwentyFour beefs up

    Dawn Kendall is set to join TwentyFour Asset Management as a partner on 1 July 2015, with a dual role covering both portfolio management and serving on the firm's management committee. She was previously senior bond strategist at Investec Wealth Investment and has also worked at Architas Multi Manager, IAM, Newton Investment Management, Codelouf Trust and SG Warburg.

    TwentyFour also .......

    Job Swaps 13 January 2015

  • ABSPP underwhelms again

    The ECB's latest ABSPP number is likely to underwhelm the market once again.

    The ECB has confirmed that the total outstanding amount under ABSPP at 9 January was €1,792m. Meaning that last week saw a net settled volume of €48m, which is likely to further shift traders' focus away from ABSPP and build further anticipation around broader QE and hoped .......

    SCIWire 12 January 2015
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