Complete news archive

  • Rating activity becoming 'balanced'

    Global structured finance (SF) rating activity was far more balanced in 2013, according to Fitch, with downgrades declining to pre-crisis levels and upgrades becoming more visible. While downgrades continued to outnumber upgrades by a margin of 1.7 to one, the downgrade rate at 10% declined to its lowest level in six years. Conversely, the upgrade rate rose to 6%, breaking .......

    News Round-up 17 March 2014

  • CLO fix passes HFSC vote

    The US House Financial Services Committee on Friday passed Representative Andy Barr's H.R. 4167 bill (SCI 13 March) on a strong bipartisan vote of 53 to three - a step forward in spurring US agencies to issue Volcker Rule relief for CLOs, CDO strategists at JPMorgan suggest . The key take-away from Thursday's mark-up session ahead of the bill's passage .......

    News 17 March 2014

  • SCI Start the Week - 17 March

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

    Pipeline
    A number of transactions entered the pipeline last week and were swiftly priced. Five ABS deals remained by Friday, together with four CLOs and one catastrophe bond, CMBS and RMBS each.

    The ABS announced last week comprise: US$223.37m California Republic Auto Receivables Trust 2014-1, US$192.2m CarFinance Capital Auto Trust 2014-1, US$34.76m Rhode Island Student Loan Authority 2014, $743.6m .......

    News 17 March 2014

  • Collateral management alliance formed

    Broadridge Financial Solutions and Lombard Risk Management have formed a global alliance designed to address changing industry needs in the collateral management sector. The strategic partnership aims to create a powerful integrated collateral management offering by combining Lombard Risk's technology capability with Broadridge's applications and infrastructure.

    .......

    Job Swaps 17 March 2014

  • Delinquencies plunge on CWCAM sales

    US CMBS delinquencies plunged last month as CWCapital bulk asset sales were booked and new delinquencies fell to their lowest level in five and a half years, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. CMBS late-pays fell by 46bp in February to 5.43% from 5.89% a month earlier, while resolutions of US$2.2bn outpaced new additions to the index .......

    News Round-up 17 March 2014

  • MLCFC 2007-5 reports

    Remittances have been released for a further two assets liquidated in the CWCapital bulk sale: the US$80m Resurgens Plaza Atlanta and US$13m Mars Powerline loans securitised in the MLCFC 2007-5 CMBS. The former was liquidated below its most recent appraisal, while the latter sold slightly above appraisal.

    Resurgens Plaza sold for US$62.8m versus an appraisal of US$73m, as of October .......

    News Round-up 17 March 2014

  • GG10 resolutions support spreads

    GSMS 2007-GG10 AM spreads moved tighter yesterday, following the resolution of US$583m of specially-serviced loans and a subsequent reduction in cashflow timing uncertainty (SCI 13 March). Elsewhere in the secondary US CMBS market, generic spreads were mostly unchanged and BWIC volume remained steady at around US$374m, according to Interactive Data figures.

    Supply was boosted during the session by a bid-list .......

    Market Reports 14 March 2014

  • Recovery in apartment prices underlined

    Apartment prices have recovered to a greater extent than single-family prices post-crisis in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC, according to the latest Moody's/RCA CPPI report.

    "Apartment prices peaked six quarters later, but the recovery has nevertheless been stronger, with prices currently 20% above their 4Q07 peak," says Moody's director of commercial real estate research .......

    News Round-up 14 March 2014

  • SF technology to proliferate in EM

    S&P anticipates a proliferation of structured finance technology throughout emerging markets in 2014. The agency believes that expanding domestic markets will continue to dominate the emerging markets landscape within the largest investment grade countries, since cross-border issuances have offered little cost savings for issuers, especially for non-deliverable currencies. It also expects issuers in speculative grade countries to continue seeking cross-border .......

    News Round-up 14 March 2014

  • OTC agency model emerging

    Banks active in the OTC derivatives markets are beginning to adopt an agency model, whereby they enable market participants, according to a new Celent report. Entitled 'Swap execution facilities: market evolution and regulation', the report suggests that there is an opportunity for second-tier sell-side and larger buy-side firms to trade higher volumes and dominate the market.

    Some hedge funds have .......

    News Round-up 14 March 2014

  • Green bond index debuts

    Solactive has launched the Solactive Green Bond Index, which is designed to provide exposure to green bonds. The index universe is composed of all bonds that are categorised as green bonds, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative.

    To be included in the index, bonds must have an amount outstanding of at least US$100m and a minimum remaining time to maturity .......

    News Round-up 14 March 2014

  • Portugal's TD plan 'sustainable'

    The government plan to reduce costs and increase revenue can make Portugal's electricity system sustainable and eliminate outstanding tariff deficits (TDs) in the next 10 years, Fitch suggests. Spain's ability to eliminate TDs remains considerably less certain, however.

    Portugal's plan includes revising special tariffs on new renewable contracts and phasing out end-user regulated electricity tariffs by end-2015. Fitch expects these .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • Paucity of CLO collateral examined

    High stock market valuations and an increasing corporate focus on strategic acquisitions are enabling financial sponsors to exit longstanding investments from the 2006 and 2007 boom years, while creating a barrier to new LBOs, Fitch says. The preference for IPOs and strategic sales has led to a material decline in the recycling of legacy leveraged credits through secondary buyouts, thereby .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • Settlement acceptance date extended

    JPMorgan last week agreed to extend by another three months the period for trustees to evaluate and accept its proposed US$4.5bn settlement with 21 institutional investors represented by Gibbs & Bruns. The trustees had asked for more time to investigate the terms of the settlement.

    The new acceptance date is 16 June, having initially been 15 January. In addition, for .......

    Job Swaps 13 March 2014

  • RFC issued on CFO update

    Moody's is seeking comments from market participants on proposed changes to its rating approach for transactions backed by a portfolio of hedge fund investments, including collateralised funds of hedge fund obligations (CFOs) and variable funding notes (VFNs). If adopted, the agency does not expect these changes to have a material impact on its current VFN ratings, but does expect a .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • Gleacher to be dissolved

    The directors of Gleacher & Company have determined that it is in the best interests of its stockholders for the firm to dissolve, liquidate and distribute its available assets. The firm reported a net loss of US$2.9m, or 47 cents per share, for 4Q13.

    Gleacher had been engaged in an intensive evaluation of potential strategic alternatives in order to preserve .......

    Job Swaps 13 March 2014

  • GG10 sales 'below expectations'

    Remittance reports for the GSMS 2007-GG10 CMBS cover another US$583m in liquidations from the CWCapital bulk liquidations, including a below-appraisal sale of the Two California Plaza property. Overall sales prices were below expectations, according to Barclays Capital CMBS analysts.

    Net proceeds were reported at US$348.8m, versus the most recent appraisal of US$399.6m. The liquidations resulted in losses of US$282.4m, equating .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • Clearing oversight rules proposed

    The US SEC is proposing new rules to enhance the oversight of clearing agencies that are deemed to be systemically important or that are involved in complex transactions, such as security-based swaps, in line with Dodd-Frank requirements. Clearing agencies covered by the proposed rules would be subject to new requirements regarding their financial risk management, operations, governance and disclosures to .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • Misrepresentation case settled

    The US SEC has charged Jefferies with failing to supervise employees on its MBS desk, who lied to customers about pricing. Jefferies' policy required supervisors to review the electronic communications of traders and salespeople in order to flag any untrue or misleading information provided customers. However, the policy was not implemented in a way to detect misrepresentations about price.

    According .......

    Job Swaps 13 March 2014

  • CLO fix due for debate

    The US House Committee on Financial Services is today due to mark-up H.R. 4167, the 'Restoring Proven Financing for American Employers Act'. The bill was offered by Congressman Barr and provides a fix for certain CLOs that would otherwise be subject to the Volcker Rule when it is fully implemented on 21 July 2015.

    SFIG notes that transactions issued before .......

    News Round-up 13 March 2014

  • FCA names investment banking head

    The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Julia Hoggett as head of investment banking in its supervision division, beginning in early May. She joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she is currently md responsible for a range of debt capital markets products, including European commercial paper, covered bonds and green bonds in EMEA.

    Hoggett was previously the .......

    Job Swaps 12 March 2014
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