Complete news archive

  • Starting gun

    New front emerges in Trups CDO enforcement

    American Bancorp was last month forced into involuntary bankruptcy, marking the first case where Trups CDO holders worked together to enforce their creditor rights. As other bank Trups issuers reach the end of the deferral window for non-payment of interest, further cases of this type are expected to emerge.

    The American Bancorp case concerns the Alesco Preferred Funding 2, 15 .......

    News Analysis 11 June 2014

  • Discount bargains

    Early CLO refinancings provide investor opportunities

    New US CLO structures with senior tranches offered at both par and at a discount are creating opportunities for investors to capitalise on early refinancings. The discount bonds often appear to be undervalued compared to similar par bonds.

    A series of deals have recently been issued with a pair of pari passu floating-rate tranches. The tranches have been identical save .......

    News Analysis 11 June 2014

  • RFC issued on NPLs

    Moody's is seeking feedback on its proposed approach to rating securitisations backed by non-performing loans (NPLs). The agency proposes to not only consolidate its two existing NPL methodologies, but also to expand the scope of its methodology to address concentrated commercial real estate NPLs and revolving pools. It may apply haircuts to base-case cashflows to derive the final model outputs, .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Bondholder communications reviewed

    The ICMSA discusses how the trustee community has worked to...

    A lively discussion between investors and trustees at the 2010 Global ABS conference was a catalyst for the ICMSA1 to revisit bondholder communication processes. Given the rise in bondholder meetings due to the fall-out from the financial crisis, bondholder communications were put squarely under the spotlight.

    Trustees are one link of the bondholder communication chain, but are seen as .......

    Talking Point 10 June 2014

  • CMBS criteria updated

    Fitch has updated its EMEA CMBS and loan rating criteria, following the publication of an exposure draft in April (SCI 15 April). The update does not affect any existing ratings.

    The criteria update is consistent with the exposure draft, apart from in two areas. First, the criteria will also apply a rating cap to certain CMBS transactions in jurisdictions where .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Widespread improvement seen for UK RMBS

    Fitch says that UK RMBS performance improved across the board as the volume of loans in arrears by three months or more decreased from their peak during the crisis. This is one of the findings in the agency's new report, 'Mortgage Market Index - UK'.

    "This improved performance is largely due to prevailing low interest rates, combined with recent improvements .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Post-crisis late-pays examined

    The highest delinquency to date of any post-crisis US RMBS pool emerged last month, due to a transfer of servicing. However, it does not point to more widespread post-crisis late-pays, according to Fitch in its latest monthly prime jumbo trends report.

    Sequoia 2014-1 reported that 3.37% of borrowers were behind on their payment in May. All of the delinquent mortgage .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Large loan CMBS warning

    The quality of the properties in recently securitised large loan CMBS deals has improved, but the overall level of debt in triple-B minus to single-B minus tranches is concerning, according to Fitch. The agency says that in four recent large loan transactions it didn't rate the differences in ratings ranged from one notch lower on the triple-A rated debt to .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Element expands ABS platform

    PHH Corporation is to sell its fleet management services business - including the Chesapeake Funding unit - to Element Financial Corporation, with the transaction expected to close before 31 July. Element has indicated that the acquisition will enhance its securitisation programme.

    As part of the transaction, Element will acquire all of PHH Arval's fleet management operations in North America. The .......

    Job Swaps 10 June 2014

  • Italian CMBS in the works

    Deutsche Bank is in the market with a €355m CMBS, dubbed DECO 2014 - Gondola, which is backed by three loans secured on 18 properties across three portfolios in Italy. The portfolios were indirectly acquired by Blackstone in three separate transactions between December 2013 and February 2014.

    The properties - totalling 685,314 square-meters - are located primarily in Northern Italy. .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • WINDM X statement addressed

    Mount Street has responded to Hatfield Philips International's comments regarding Windermere X (SCI 4 June). The firm says that HPI made "a number of inaccurate statements" that it feels "duty bound" to correct, so that bondholders can make a fully informed decision about the proposed transfer of special servicing.

    In particular, Mount Street takes issue with HPI's assertion that it .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • PAYE expansion underway

    President Obama has directed the Secretary of Education to propose regulations that would expand the number of borrowers eligible for the pay as you earn (PAYE) programme (SCI 10 March). The action aims to allow all borrowers with any DLP loans outstanding - except for DLP loans made to parents - to apply for the scheme.

    Barclays Capital ABS analysts .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • British manager buys US firm

    Man Group is set to acquire Pine Grove Asset Management. The transaction is expected to close in the next quarter and will enhance Man Group's presence in the US.

    Pine Grove is based in New Jersey and New York and is a credit-focused fund of hedge funds manager. Pine Grove's investment philosophy, strategy and approach will remain unchanged after the .......

    Job Swaps 10 June 2014

  • Omni builds real estate capabilities

    Omni Partners has acquired a stake in Brookland Partners. The deal will provide Omni with additional operational and intellectual capital to develop its internal real estate debt capabilities, while Brookland will benefit from Omni's specialist alternative product experience and institutional infrastructure.

    Omni entered the real estate debt space when it acquired UK property lender Capital Bridging Finance last year and .......

    Job Swaps 10 June 2014

  • CLO portfolio overlap eyed

    Although European CLO issuance has gradually picked up over the last 18 months, CLO managers continue to face a shortage of assets. The lack of new supply and attractive secondary loans means that it is increasingly difficult for managers to build more diversified portfolios, which has led to significant portfolio overlap in post-credit crisis transactions, according to S&P.

    The agency .......

    News Round-up 10 June 2014

  • Data added to RMBS analytics platform

    BlackBox Logic's loan-level non-agency RMBS database is now available on Thetica Systems' cloud platform. The bundled solution will offer market participants powerful data and analytics without having to manage such a large amount of information.

    Thetica's platform offers a high-speed analytics module which can run bonds simultaneously under various scenarios, including different pricing and regional metrics. This has now been .......

    Job Swaps 10 June 2014

  • Portfolio purchase surprises to upside

    The portfolio underlying the FOX 1 CMBS has been purchased by Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate for £296m, which is £48m more than its most recent valuation. The property recovery estimate in September had been £235m (SCI 5 September 2013).

    The FOX 1 portfolio was acquired through a CMBS loan enforcement. The English assets were sold by Dudley Holme-Turner of .......

    News 10 June 2014

  • Euro ABS action plan proposed

    The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has joined policymakers in calling for the revival of European securitisation to unlock long-term financing and fuel growth. It has released a report, entitled 'High-quality securitisation for Europe', which proposes a five-step action plan to save the market.

    "High-level statements of support from central banks and policymakers are extremely welcome, but they .......

    News Round-up 9 June 2014

  • CPS settlement 'credit negative'

    Consumer Portfolio Services (CPS) last month agreed to pay US$5.5m to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges over its loan servicing and collections practices. Moody's suggests in its latest Credit Outlook publication that the settlement is credit negative for CPS auto loan ABS.

    "Although the new servicing requirements outlined under the settlement will bring the company into compliance with applicable .......

    News Round-up 9 June 2014

  • ABS CDO on the block

    An auction will be conducted for Bluegrass ABS CDO II on 27 June. The collateral shall only be sold if the proceeds, together with the balance of all eligible investments and cash in the accounts, are at least equal to the redemption amount. The redemption amount is the aggregate amount required to redeem all the notes and pay all required .......

    News Round-up 9 June 2014

  • Analytics service enhanced

    Lewtan has released an enhanced version of its structuring and analytics platform, ABSNet Modeler, which is geared to all sectors of the new issue securitisation market. The enhancements consist of updated rating agency liability model criteria for CLOs (Moody's, Fitch and S&P), with the inclusion of multiple matrix point inputs.

    In addition, the deterministic loan and global level assumptions now .......

    News Round-up 9 June 2014
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