Complete news archive

  • Euro residential performance diverging

    The outlook for all major European residential mortgage markets has improved or stayed the same compared with a year ago, but performance among countries is diverging, Fitch notes. The agency expects house price affordability in some cities to be stretched further over 2014, given near-term expected house price increases.

    The divergence in European markets reflects country-specific property cycles and factors .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2014

  • Volcker-compliant CLOs emerging

    Banks that own non-compliant transactions have a number of options if regulators do not provide clarity on the Volcker Rule as it pertains to CLOs (SCI 16 January), according to Wells Fargo CDO strategists. In the meantime, the uncertainty has pushed triple-A spreads slightly wider and slowed the pace of new issuance.

    Banks are mainly expected to attempt, on a .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2014

  • Country risk weighs on covered bonds

    Country risk remains the main influence on the performance of European covered bonds, according to S&P. Furthermore, because weakening balance-sheet quality and earnings means that credit conditions for Western European banks are still largely negative, the agency believes that the role of and support for covered bonds in the funding mix of individual banks will remain an important rating factor.

    News Round-up 21 January 2014

  • QM rules to limit credit expansion

    The continued normalisation taking place in the US housing market provides scope for mortgage credit to expand from its current tight levels. However, Dodd-Frank ATR/QM requirements pose challenges for credit to expand to pre-crisis levels.

    Barclays Capital RMBS analysts believe that the majority of credit expansion is likely to come from QM loans, where some flexibility remains regarding FICOs and .......

    News 21 January 2014

  • Servicer stability examined

    Three US mortgage servicers - Ocwen, Nationstar and Walter Investment Management - have significantly grown their servicing portfolios over the past two years. Moody's focuses on the servicing stability of these three entities in its latest Servicer Dashboard publication.

    The agency notes that the three servicers have undergone rapid transformations, which continue to pose significant operational risks that constrain their .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2014

  • Infrastructure risk transfer unit debuts

    Mariner Investment Group has launched Mariner Infrastructure Investment Management (MIIM), a bank deleveraging and regulatory capital management investment business. MIIM, in turn, serves as portfolio manager for two investment vehicles - the International Infrastructure Finance Company Fund (a US$350m comingled fund) and Mariner Breakwater (a US$100m fund-of-one).

    MIIM aims to take leveraged exposure to loans, bonds and other debt instruments .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2014

  • Derivatives pro steps up

    Richards Kibbe & Orbe has appointed Jennifer Grady and Craig Newman as managing partners, succeeding Kenneth Werner. Grady specialises in derivatives and distressed debt.

    Grady joined the firm in 2004 and has previously worked for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and has experience in the evolving regulatory treatment of loan-based derivative transactions. Newman has been at the firm since 2007 and .......

    Job Swaps 21 January 2014

  • JCP CDS gap out

    Widening in JC Penney's five-year credit default swap (CDS) spreads underscores continued investor concern about the entity, according to Fitch Solutions. The retailer is set to close 33 stores in the US and cut 2,000 jobs as it struggles to resuscitate revenue growth.

    JCP CDS have gapped out by 111bp over the course of the past month, with a 29bp .......

    News Round-up 20 January 2014

  • CFPB rules take centre stage

    From a US residential mortgage servicing perspective, last year will be remembered as a year of regulation and consolidation. However, going into 2014 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will take centre stage as the ability-to-repay (ATR), qualified mortgage (QM) and servicing rules go into effect, according to DBRS.

    The agency believes that the issuance of the ATR and QM .......

    News Round-up 20 January 2014

  • Rare equity reimbursement seen

    Seven loans backing the CWCI 2006-C1 deal - totalling US$219m in outstanding balance - have been liquidated, including a couple of properties that appear to be part of the large CWCapital Auction.com sale in December. Unusually, the sales resulted in an equity class loss reimbursement pay-out.

    The liquidated assets include the US$52m Addison Corporate Center (see SCI's CMBS loan events .......

    News Round-up 20 January 2014

  • CMBS delinquencies dip below 6%

    US CMBS delinquencies declined by 12bp in December to 5.98% from 6.1% a month earlier, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. Late-pays now stand at three percentage points below their July 2011 peak of 9%, with multifamily and hotels seeing the largest improvements last year.

    Resolutions of US$1.1bn last month outpaced additions to the index of US$717m. .......

    News Round-up 20 January 2014

  • Trade reporting system expanded

    Xtrakter has teamed up with the CME European Trade Repository to launch TRAX Repository Link (TRL). TRL is a single point of entry for reporting firms, providing EMIR-compliant technology to route, translate and validate derivative transactions to CME Group's European Trade Repository.

    The CME European Trade Repository will store reported transactions and pair across other approved trade repositories if needed. .......

    Job Swaps 20 January 2014

  • Derivatives lawyer makes switch

    Sebastian Reger has joined Sackers as an associate director. The derivatives lawyer was previously at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he focused on structured finance transactions and advised on a range of structured products and derivatives. Reger will be part of the finance and investment group.

    .......

    Job Swaps 20 January 2014

  • SCI Start the Week - 20 January

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

    Pipeline
    Additions to the pipeline last week were focused on CMBS and CLOs. In ABS, the €440m E-Carat Compartment No.6 was announced, while Sallie Mae began remarketing the US$1bn SLM 2004-10.

    The CMBS joining the pipeline comprised the US$399.5m Annaly 2014-FL1, US$620m DBCCRE 2014-ARCP and US$1.1bn GSMS 2014-GC18. The newly-announced CLOs, meanwhile, consisted of US$411.95m Ares XXIX CLO, €924.7m .......

    News 20 January 2014

  • Improved fundamentals highlighted

    The Fitch Fundamentals Index (FFI) remained in neutral territory but rose to +2 in 4Q13 from zero in 3Q13, indicating a small improvement in underlying credit fundamentals. Quarter-over-quarter, positive FFI credit fundamental components outweigh negative by six to three, with one at neutral.

    "On the positive side, we saw an up-tick in the rating outlook component, due in part to .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014

  • Sears CDS underperforming

    CDS on Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corporation have widened by 39% over the past month, according to Fitch Solutions. Sears CDS spreads significantly underperformed the 9% tightening seen for the broader North America Retail CDS Index over the same time period.

    The cost of Sears credit protection has climbed to levels not seen in nearly two years. "Worsening sentiment for Sears .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014

  • Reinsurance investment strategies minted

    New Ocean Capital Management has launched two reinsurance investment strategies. In addition to capital furnished by its founders - XL Group and Stone Point Capital - the firm has received capital commitments from funds managed by Dowling Capital Partners I and a global asset manager. Dowling Capital has also acquired an equity participation in the company. New Ocean deployed capital .......

    Job Swaps 17 January 2014

  • Tohoku-related distribution disclosed

    CATCo Investment Management has announced that a distribution of 2.887c will be payable to ordinary shareholders of the CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities fund on 24 January. The payment relates to the Master Fund's exposure to the Tohoku earthquake in Japan, following an agreement with a reinsurance counterparty.

    CATCo had two reinsurance counterparties with potential exposure to the event and took a .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014

  • ILS exposures, sponsors expanding

    S&P rated US$5.16bn of catastrophe bonds last year, a slight increase on 2012's total of US$4.8bn. The number of cat bonds the agency rated in 2013 (approximately 68% of all cat bonds issued last year) was the second highest ever, surpassed only by the total US$6.1bn it rated in 2007.

    Last year, cat bonds were issued by five new sponsors: .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014

  • Borrower default behaviour examined

    New Freddie Mac research shows that a commercial real estate borrower's loan default decision for an underperforming property is based on several factors, including property and loan characteristics, as well a economic and market conditions. The report, entitled 'Default Ruthlessness: Examining Borrower Default Behavior', analysed and compared borrower default behaviour for CMBS loans and Freddie Mac multifamily loans. The analysis .......

    News Round-up 17 January 2014

  • Key person switch proposed

    The issuer and portfolio manager for Harvest CLO V intend to amend the provisions of the portfolio management agreement to replace Paul Carman as a key person with Peter Goody. The trustee has already concurred that the proposed amendments are not materially prejudicial to the interests of any noteholders.

    Goody has 17 years of experience in the leveraged loan market .......

    Job Swaps 17 January 2014
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