Complete news archive

  • Tightening seen in risk-sharing bonds

    CAS and STACR spreads continued to grind tighter last week, with M2 classes hovering at 225bp-250bp and STACR M3s reaching new tights, coming in by about 20bp-25bp to 288bp-291bp. All classes from the risk-sharing RMBS are now trading above par and some earlier M2 classes are trading at significant premiums.

    Secondary trading volumes of risk-sharing bonds rose by 60% month-on-month .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • Dodd-Frank to prompt B-piece sales

    The first four months of the year have seen 60 US CMBS B-piece bonds appear a combined 97 times on BWICs. Dodd-Frank risk-retention requirements could accelerate this trend in the near term.

    Morgan Stanley CMBS analysts put the value of those B-piece bonds at US$630m. For 50 out of the 60 bonds, the original B-piece buyer had been either Rialto, .......

    News 14 May 2014

  • Office Depot exposure examined

    Retailer Office Depot is set to close over 400 of its stores, following its merger with OfficeMax. A list of store closures has not yet been made available, but about 380 properties across 355 US CMBS loans are believed to have exposure to Office Depot or OfficeMax.

    The store closures will occur in stages, with 150 scheduled for this year .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • Portuguese sovereign ceiling lifted

    Moody's has upgraded Portugal's government bond rating to Ba2 from Ba3 and placed the rating on review for possible further upgrade. Concurrently, it raised the country's local and foreign currency bond and deposit ceilings to Baa1 from Baa3 to reflect the country's reduced economic, legal and political risks.

    Consequently, the maximum achievable rating for Portuguese structured finance rated transactions has .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • Core commercial outperforms apartments

    The Moody's/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI) national all-property composite index decreased by 0.1% in March and now stands 57.4% above its January 2010 trough and 6.3% below its November 2007 peak. The apartment component increased by 0.3%, while the larger core commercial component decreased by 0.3%.

    However, core commercial prices have increased by 16.3% over the last 12 months, .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • FHA expands access to credit

    The FHA has released its 'Blueprint for Access', designed to expand access to credit for underserved borrowers. The move is being seen as a further effort to loosen the current tight mortgage underwriting standards (SCI 13 May).

    Under the latest measures, MIP requirements for FHA purchase borrowers that undergo housing counselling will be reduced. The changes include a 50bp reduction .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • RMBS fraud action dismissed

    A New York state court last week dismissed a fraud action filed by MBIA Insurance against JPMorgan. The suit was filed in 2012 in connection with a US$1.2bn RMBS - GMACM Home Equity Loan Trust 2006-HE4.

    MBIA alleges that it was fraudulently induced by Bear Stearns to issue an insurance policy for the transaction, which went on to sustain US$168m .......

    Job Swaps 14 May 2014

  • Incremental changes for the GSEs

    The FHFA has released its 2014 strategic plan for the conservatorship of and the scorecard for the GSEs. Many of the changes are seen as incremental in nature compared with previous strategic plans.

    Under the scorecard, the FHFA has set a US$90bn target for risk transfer in 2014 and each enterprise must utilise at least one transaction type in addition .......

    News Round-up 14 May 2014

  • Bid-list boost for US RMBS

    US non-agency RMBS BWIC volume reached US$716m in yesterday's session as supply was up across all product types. Most of the supply came from senior and mezzanine subprime floaters but there was also interest in senior Alt-A current-pays and senior option ARMs.

    SCI's PriceABS data shows supply concentrated in 2005-2007 vintage names. However, there were also .......

    Market Reports 14 May 2014

  • Switch sense

    Non-conforming pay-down triggers anticipated

    UK non-conforming RMBS continues to outperform US subprime RMBS and several deals are now approaching their pay-down switch triggers. Anticipating the switch is a key factor in deciding where and when to invest.

    "Investors have not really suffered losses. There have been reserve fund draws in deals, but performance has been stable and it is improving," says Steve Rogers, director .......

    News Analysis 13 May 2014

  • GSE guidelines loosened

    The GSEs have updated their representation and warranty guidelines, effective for mortgages settled on or after 1 July 2014. The changes are anticipated to increase the number of loans eligible for rep and warranty relief, but no substantial changes appear to have been made to the relief provided.

    "On balance, these changes point to an incremental loosening of the credit .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • SDR connectivity offered

    TriOptima is set to offer data verification and portfolio reconciliation in CME's Swap Data Repository (SDR) via its triResolve service, as requested by their mutual clients. Data connectivity between CME SDR and the triResolve platform will enable users to verify and reconcile cleared and non-cleared credit, rates, FX and commodities transactions submitted to CME SDR, as well as address any .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • CDO liquidations set

    Several CDOs are set to be redeemed in the coming weeks. First, at least two bids for each sub-pool of the DEKANIA CDO II were received from qualified bidders during the auction held on 9 May, which are at least equal to the total redemption amount. An auction call redemption shall consequently take place for the Trups CDO on 23 .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • SLABS refi bill introduced

    Senator Elizabeth Warren last week introduced legislation - the 'Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act' - that would allow FFELP, FDLP and certain private student loan borrowers to refinance existing loans into new Federal loans at the interest rates offered under the Federal loan programmes. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Representatives John Tierney and George .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • CMBS supply centres on A4s, AJs

    US CMBS bid-list volume came in at around US$175m yesterday, slightly lower than it had been at the end of last week. SCI's PriceABS data shows a significant amount of A4 and AJ paper out for the bid.

    A large CDO liquidation list of fully written-down legacy subordinated bonds is also said to have traded during the session. .......

    Market Reports 13 May 2014

  • Canadian CMBS platform created

    Trez Capital Group has launched a CMBS platform and appointed Ross Brennan to lead it. Trez Commercial Mortgage will focus on providing long-term financing on stabilised income producing commercial properties across Canada.

    Brennan joins as a partner and md. Before he joined Trez he was president and ceo of Otera Capital and prior to that he started the CMBS conduits .......

    Job Swaps 13 May 2014

  • Negative interest protocol launched

    ISDA has launched its 2014 Collateral Agreement Negative Interest Protocol, which is designed to provide certainty about how the payment of interest on posted collateral is calculated in a negative interest rate environment under ISDA collateral documentation. Overnight indexed swap (OIS) rates have approached zero or even turned negative in certain currencies over the past two years, prompting calls for .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • Aussie reporting requirements enhanced

    The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has published updated and more detailed information on how its new reporting requirements for repo-eligible ABS will be implemented. In particular, all data for each securitisation must now be provided on a monthly basis, no later than seven calendar days after an issuer's specified coupon payment date and the equivalent monthly anniversary in non-coupon-payment .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • ESMA to 'ease' EMIR frontloading

    The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has informed the European Commission of its intention to ease certain frontloading requirements under EMIR, with the aim of minimising uncertainty. ESMA says it believes that the frontloading procedure creates uncertainties for derivatives end-users, while the exact terms of the clearing obligation has not been defined, which could have an adverse impact on .......

    News Round-up 13 May 2014

  • ABS CDOs on the block

    Auctions will be conducted for the RFC CDO II and III transactions on 2 June. The collateral shall only be sold if the proceeds are greater than or equal to the redemption amount.

    .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2014

  • Low-quality retail assets eyed

    Moody's expects low-quality retail assets securitised in UK CMBS to be more vulnerable to future changes in technology and consumer behaviour than higher-quality retail assets. The rise of e-commerce, the growth of retail destinations with superior leisure and catering options, and the use of technology to assess the optimal tenant mix and layout of properties are set to influence the .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2014
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