Complete news archive

  • Restructuring partners added in London

    Schulte Roth & Zabel has recruited Peter Declercq and Sonya Van de Graaff to expand its London office. They each come from Brown Rudnick and join Schulte's business reorganisation practice as partners, where they will report to Adam Harris.

    Declercq's practice focuses on cross-border insolvencies, restructurings and distressed mergers and acquisitions. He currently represents the ad hoc bondholder group for .......

    Job Swaps 8 April 2013

  • Call for IM rethink

    ISDA notes in a recent derivatiViews publication that the thrust of the Basel Committee/IOSCO's second consultation on margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives remain "more or less unchanged" from the previous consultation. The association warns that if initial margin (IM) requirements are implemented as proposed, the sheer quantum of them is likely to cause irreparable damage to market liquidity and .......

    News Round-up 8 April 2013

  • RMBS volume creeps up

    SCI's PriceABS data shows an increase in US RMBS secondary activity for yesterday's session. Subprime supply was particularly prevalent, with a slew of senior and mezzanine tranches out for the bid.

    "Overall BWIC volume has slightly picked up from the prior session, led by an increase in subprime bonds. Trading activity in fixed and ARMs is focused in .......

    Market Reports 5 April 2013

  • Turkish quake risk on offer

    Bosphorus 1 Re series 2013-1, a parametric catastrophe bond, has hit the market. Sponsored by the Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool (TCIP), the notes are exposed to earthquakes affecting the Istanbul region between April 2013 and April 2016.

    S&P has assigned a double-B plus preliminary rating to the US dollar-denominated class A notes. The move marks the first time it has .......

    News Round-up 5 April 2013

  • MBIA bolstered by court rulings

    MBIA Inc on 2 April won an appeals court ruling, whereby Bank of America could be required to repurchase securitised loans even if they are not in default. The New York state appeals panel found that MBIA is entitled to have Bank of America buy back a performing loan that it can prove "materially and adversely" affected its interest, thus .......

    Job Swaps 5 April 2013

  • CMBS pay-offs inch lower

    The percentage of US CMBS loans paying off on their balloon date registered 56.6%, according to the Trepp March pay-off report. This is about five points lower than February's 61.8% level, but well above the 12-month moving average of 50.9%.

    By loan count as opposed to balance) 63.2% of loans paid off. The 12-month rolling average on this basis is .......

    News Round-up 5 April 2013

  • Servicer advances begin rebound

    Servicer advance rates have reversed the downward trend that began in early 2009. As well as a potential increase in voluntary prepayment rates and lower realised loss severities, a positive effect on servicer advance rates on delinquent loans can therefore be expected.

    The impact of declining servicer advances was felt most acutely in subprime deals and it is here that .......

    News 5 April 2013

  • Fund manager adds strategy head

    Archview Investment Group has recruited Peter Carey as principal in charge of business strategy and capital formation. He joins from SkyBridge Capital, where he led the firm's hedge fund solutions business. Carey has previously worked on the restructuring of the New York Common Retirement Fund's hedge fund portfolio and in the institutional fixed income department at Bear Stearns.

    .......

    Job Swaps 5 April 2013

  • Buffer introduced for Swiss HPD assumptions

    Uncertainty over Swiss property prices has increased over the last year; however, Fitch maintains its view that the market as a whole is still not experiencing a bubble. To reflect the increased uncertainty, the agency has introduced a buffer in its house price decline (HPD) assumptions.

    Swiss house prices have risen faster than general income levels since 2000. The decoupling .......

    News Round-up 5 April 2013

  • SNS Bank results in

    The final results for the SNS Bank CDS auction have been published. The auction was undertaken across two senior/sub buckets: the final price for Bucket 1 was 95.5, while the final price for Bucket 6 was 85.5. Twelve dealers submitted initial markets, physical settlement requests and limit orders to the auction.

    .......

    News Round-up 5 April 2013

  • Data integrity key to non-core divestments

    A common trend is emerging in loan book audits executed on behalf of asset purchasers in Ireland and Spain, according to Rockstead - the significant level of data integrity breaches. The firm says this problem could be easily overcome by the lender embedding data integrity within their servicing operations long before divestment becomes a reality.

    Rockstead notes that the first .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • New Dutch mortgage bonds on the cards?

    Ways of improving financing to the Dutch mortgage market are currently being considered by the country's authorities, in particular how to encourage increased participation from institutional investors. One proposal under discussion is the creation of a centralised Dutch mortgage bank (the NHI), which would issue multi-issuer standardised mortgage bonds (NHOs) explicitly wrapped by the state.

    The funding gap between Dutch .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • Up-tick in note sale activity forecast

    CMBS note sale activity via Auction.com is expected to pick up this month, with four separate commercial property auctions scheduled. An estimated 68 properties securitised in CMBS are out for bid, accounting for about US$460m in outstanding balance.

    The largest among these is the Corridors I & II property, part of the US$39m TAG portfolio securitised in LBUBS 2005-C5. The .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • Rating agency adds CMBS quartet

    Kroll Bond Rating Agency has added four analysts from Morningstar to its CMBS group. Steve Kuritz joins as senior director, Laura Shannon and Bill Peterson become directors and Mike Haas joins as associate.

    All four will be focusing on surveillance and are located in a new office in Horsham, Pennsylvania. They will report to Eric Thompson, md and head of .......

    Job Swaps 4 April 2013

  • Freddie to issue modified pools

    Freddie Mac intends to start issuing pools of modified loans, which could offer a distinct investment opportunity. At the same time, the FHFA has announced a significant revision to the current modification process, which is set to increase the number of modifications executed and provide extra impetus to Freddie's plan.

    The FHFA's new guidelines - dubbed the streamlined modification initiative .......

    News 4 April 2013

  • ED progress 'ahead of schedule'

    The ECB deadline for submitting loan-level data to the European DataWarehouse passed last week. Although most banks had signed up by February (SCI 22 February), the number of deals in the ED's system has increased significantly from around 200 at the end of that month to now stand at 557.

    As well as that progress, several more deals are still .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • Ratings tie-up announced

    Moody's credit ratings are now available to institutional investors via Morningstar UK's suite of data feed solutions on a requested, bespoke basis. Institutional clients will be required to hold a Moody's ratings license in order to access the data.

    .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • Private disposition for ACA CDO

    The majority of the controlling class of ACA ABS 2007-1 has directed the trustee (Wells Fargo) to dispose of the CDO's collateral. It is currently anticipated that the liquidation of the portfolio will be effected via one or more private sales. A final distribution will be made after the completion of liquidation at dates fixed by the trustee.

    The first .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • CMBS defaults trending down

    The stabilisation trend continues for US CMBS, with new defaults falling to their lowest levels since 2008 when 364 loans totalling US$3.2bn defaulted. According to Fitch's latest annual loan default study, CMBS defaults fell for the third year in a row in 2012, coming in 46% lower than in 2011 and 67% off the 2010 peak.

    "Commercial real estate loan .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • CMBS loss severity dips

    The number of US CMBS loans disposed with a loss in March was flat, while resolution volume fell by 12% on the basis of liquidated balance, according to Trepp. March average loss severity came in at 39.65% - 4.6 percentage points lower than February's level of 44.26%.

    March liquidations totaled US$849.2m, relative to the 12-month moving average of US$1.35bn. The .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013

  • Athilon upgraded

    S&P has raised the issuer credit rating (ICR) on the Athilon CDPC to triple-B plus from double-B plus. At the same time, the agency affirmed its ratings on the senior subordinated, subordinated and junior subordinated notes. Its outlook on Athilon is stable.

    The higher ICR primarily reflects S&P's view regarding the seasoning credit of Athilon's tranche CDS portfolio. The CDPC .......

    News Round-up 4 April 2013
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