Complete news archive

  • NC RMBS 'resilient' to rate hikes

    The low interest rate environment post-2009 has benefitted non-conforming mortgage borrowers. A new Moody's analysis suggests that this market segment will be resilient to the moderate interest rate rises that the rating agency forecasts.

    "Our model predicts that a cumulative interest rate increase of 1% - which we do not expect until 1Q16 - will only lead to a 0.9% .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Charge-offs hit record low

    Fitch's Prime Credit Card Charge-off Index has reached another record low and now stands at 2.89% for the February collection period. The index has declined by 26% year-over-year (YOY) and is 75% below its historic high of 11.52% reached in September 2009.

    Meanwhile, Fitch's Prime Credit Card 60+ Day Delinquency Index increased by 2bp month-on-month (MOM) to 1.23%. This index .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Judicial discrepancies affect severities

    Home prices in the US may be going up, but so are loss severities. A marked difference in severities is emerging between judicial and non-judicial states, while several factors are also driving differences within judicial states.

    Severities are higher in judicial states, with differing foreclosure timelines and substantial home price appreciation creating a divide that continues to grow, according to .......

    News 2 April 2014

  • Private SLABS poised for stability

    An improving broader economy is leading to fewer college students postponing their monthly loan payments, which should position US private student loan ABS for more stable performance in the coming months, according to Fitch's latest quarterly index on the sector. Private student loan delinquencies ranged between 0.7% and 0.87% during the quarter, while annualised gross defaults remained steady at roughly .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • CDO auction due

    An auction has been scheduled for Trainer Wortham First Republic CBO IV on 22 April. The collateral shall only be sold if the proceeds are greater than or equal to the auction call redemption amount.

    .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Trade reporting clarified

    Parties to derivative transactions are still assessing their obligations under the EMIR trade reporting regime, following its implementation on 12 February. Two aspects of the rules deserve close attention to avoid potential trip-ups, according to a recent Reed Smith client memo.

    First are the rules relating to what has been termed 'backloading', or the requirement to report historic trades. Broadly, .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • MMF CP investments declining

    US money market fund (MMF) investments in commercial paper have declined at a moderate but steady rate over the past year, driven by a reduction in ABCP and non-bank CP, according to Fitch. Relative to a year earlier, outstanding amounts of ABCP as of end-February 2014 were 22% lower.

    The combined share of CP holdings among the top-10 US prime .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Punch A downgraded

    S&P has lowered to double-B minus from triple-B and placed on credit watch negative its ratings on Punch Taverns Finance (Punch A) class A1(R) and A2(R) notes. At the same time, the agency has placed on credit watch negative the ratings on Punch A's class M1, M2(N), B1, B2, B3, C(R) and D1 notes, as well as the Punch Taverns .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • FedTrade to gain traction

    The New York Fed on 9 April is set to increase the use of its proprietary trading platform FedTrade to conduct agency MBS purchases. The move follows a series of small value agency MBS purchase and sale operations undertaken on the platform (SCI 21 November 2013).

    The FedTrade platform allows the Fed to conduct large-scale operations with all of its .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • CMBS supply returns strongly

    After anaemic secondary supply to start the week, US CMBS BWIC volume shot up yesterday to about US$500m. More than half of that supply came from a list of A1A bonds, while a sizeable AJ bid-list also helped boost activity.

    Price talk on the A1A list was generally between swaps plus 70 and swaps plus 77. On the AJ list, .......

    Market Reports 2 April 2014

  • CMBS refi challenges ahead

    Fitch reports that nine of the 17 EMEA CMBS loans from its rated portfolio that are maturing between April and June have Fitch loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of over 100%. The agency says that the high LTVs will make refinancing "extremely challenging" and it expects special servicers to take control over resolution in these cases.

    In 1Q14 seven loans defaulted ahead .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Delinquency decline continues

    The US CMBS delinquency rate fell by 24bp in March to 6.54%, 288bp lower than where it was a year ago, according to Trepp. The last time the rate was below this level was in January 2010.

    Trepp attributes some of the month-over-month improvement to the CWCapital distressed asset sales. In the first three months of 2014 alone, the CMBS .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Cross-border progress highlighted

    The OTC Derivatives Regulators Group (ODRG) - which comprises authorities with responsibility for the regulation of OTC derivatives markets in Australia, Brazil, the EU, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Quebec, Singapore, Switzerland and the US - has issued a report that identifies the current list of remaining cross-border implementation issues related to global reform of OTC derivatives markets. The report also .......

    News Round-up 2 April 2014

  • Structured products pro takes new role

    Damien Dupont has joined BlackRock's financial management advisory team in London. He was previously a senior portfolio manager at Royal Park Investments.

    Dupont specialises in credit and structured credit. Among his former roles he was responsible for secondary trading of structured credit products at Société Générale and also worked on credit risk modelling at Allianz.

    .......

    Job Swaps 2 April 2014

  • Co-founder becomes co-chief

    CCRE has named Michael Lehrman as co-ceo alongside current chief Anthony Orso. The pair are co-founders of the commercial real estate finance company.

    The company is expanding its current lending and securitisation platform and has also recently agreed to acquire multifamily agency lender Berkeley Point. Lehrman currently serves as global head of real estate at BGC Partners and Cantor Fitzgerald .......

    Job Swaps 2 April 2014

  • Auto losses inch higher

    US auto prime and subprime annualised losses inched higher in February as asset performance softened somewhat over the past six months, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. However, loss rates remain at historically low levels and only marginally off the record low levels recorded in 2012-2013.

    In the prime sector, 60+ day delinquencies were flat in February .......

    News Round-up 1 April 2014

  • Reporting service offered

    Misys has launched a new regulatory reporting service, enabling corporates, fund managers and smaller banks to meet their EMIR-specific reporting requirements. Offered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, it enables customers to report to a trade repository on the execution, modification and termination of a derivative transaction, without needing to implement or maintain new systems. The platform is also integrated with .......

    News Round-up 1 April 2014

  • Swaps portal enhanced

    ISDA has added new functionality to its SwapsInfo portal by allowing users to view trades taking place on or off a swap execution facility (SEF). This information is accessed via a drop-down menu labelled VENUE.

    The ISDA SwapsInfo platform was launched in February, providing for the examination and charting of DTCC trade repository data on interest rate derivatives and credit .......

    News Round-up 1 April 2014

  • RMBS upgrade triggered

    S&P has raised to double-A its ratings on 177 classes of notes from 108 US RMBS, following the 18 March raising of its financial strength ratings on Assured Guaranty Corp, Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp, Assured Guaranty Re and Municipal Assurance Corp to double-A from double-A minus. The outlook on each company is stable. The underlying collateral for the affected transactions .......

    News Round-up 1 April 2014

  • CLO equity vulnerable to rates hike

    Recent comments from Fed chair Janet Yellen have led to a dramatic re-pricing of the front end of the rates market, with expectations of the timing of the first Fed funds rate hike brought forward. US CLO equity is set to be strongly affected by the move.

    CLO equity tranches have benefited from the presence of Libor floors in leveraged .......

    News 1 April 2014

  • Fair value standards released

    The EBA has published its final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) laying out the requirements related to prudent valuation adjustments of fair valued positions, including calculating additional valuation adjustments (AVAs). Under the standards, two approaches are proposed to take proportionality into account, in particular for those institutions with limited exposure to fair valued positions.

    First is a simplified approach, which .......

    News Round-up 1 April 2014
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