Complete news archive

  • CMBS 2.0 loan enters special servicing

    The US$13.6m 2100 Grand loan, securitised in CMBS 2.0 deal JPMCC 2011-C3, has been transferred to special serving. The move follows the bankruptcy of the Los Angeles-area office building's primary tenant, special effects firm Rhythm & Hues.

    CMBS analysts at Barclays Capital suggest that the firm's stay in bankruptcy may be short, as an auction for the property is set .......

    News Round-up 22 March 2013

  • Call for holistic policy response

    The Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) has added to the discussion around the Basel Committee's proposed revisions to its securitisation framework (SCI passim) by suggesting that the starting assumptions of the consultative document are too narrowly drawn. The group notes that securitisations have generally performed well since the financial crisis and calls for a balanced, prudently calibrated and holistic policy .......

    News Round-up 21 March 2013

  • Counterparty data management tool enhanced

    Fenergo has strengthened its client and counterparty data management platform. The tool provides real-time solutions around legal entity data consolidation and cleansing.

    It is designed to help financial institutions improve the quality of their client and counterparty data in an effort to ready themselves for the onslaught of new regulations - such as FATCA, EMIR and Dodd-Frank - that demand .......

    News Round-up 21 March 2013

  • Stifel snaps up fixed income group

    Stifel Financial is set to acquire Knight Capital's US institutional fixed income sales and trading business. Stifel will also hire Knight's European institutional fixed income sales and trading team.

    The combined teams have around 100 sales and trading professionals covering high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, ABS and RMBS. The acquisition of the US business and hiring of the European team .......

    Job Swaps 21 March 2013

  • SNS CDS auction scheduled

    An auction to settle the credit derivative trades for SNS Bank CDS will be held on 4 April. ISDA's EMEA Determinations Committee has resolved to hold an auction in respect of the 2.5-year maturity buckets and an auction in respect of the seller bucket. A restructuring credit event was deemed to have occurred in respect of SNS Bank, following its .......

    News Round-up 21 March 2013

  • KBRA wins ESMA certification

    ESMA has formally approved the certification in the EU of Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) under Article 16 of the CRA Regulation. The firm is the first US CRA to be certified following the EC's recognition, on 5 October 2012, of the equivalence of the US legal and supervisory framework to the requirements of the CRA Regulation.

    Currently, 19 CRAs .......

    Job Swaps 21 March 2013

  • Negative equity remains a risk

    The FHFA last week announced that over one million borrowers were able to refinance into lower interest rate loans through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in 2012. Despite marked improvements in the US housing market, negative equity remains a significant credit risk in private-label RMBS, Fitch warns.

    The FHFA made several revisions to HARP last year that significantly increased .......

    News Round-up 21 March 2013

  • Spanish RMBS assumptions revised

    Fitch has revised its criteria assumptions for Spanish residential mortgage portfolios in response to changing property market circumstances and the performance outlook. In particular, the agency says that recoveries on defaulted mortgages have continued to decline, while the prospect of changes in the mortgage enforcement framework has increased the uncertainty surrounding defaults and recoveries in the longer term.

    Following the .......

    News Round-up 21 March 2013

  • SF vet chairs new search firm

    John Uhlein has been named chairman of StoneHouse Search Partners, a recruitment firm co-founded by his son Wyatt Uhlein. Prior to forming StoneHouse, Wyatt Uhlein was a recruitment consultant at Michael Page, covering investment banking and asset management roles from the analyst to vp level. John Uhlein has over 25 years of experience in the financial services sector and will continue .......

    Job Swaps 21 March 2013

  • Planes pique secondary interest

    Activity in the US secondary ABS market was skewed towards aircraft and student loan paper yesterday. The handful of aircraft bonds talked during the session were pooled in a CDO that is due to be liquidated on Tuesday of next week.

    Among the aircraft paper out for the bid yesterday was a US$2.654m piece of the PALS 2000-1 A1 tranche, .......

    Market Reports 21 March 2013

  • Providence affiliate adds credit pro

    Richard Byrne is joining Providence Equity Capital Markets' credit unit, Benefit Street Partners, next month as president. He will be based in Benefit Street's New York office, reporting to Providence Equity ceo Thomas Gahan.

    Byrne was most recently ceo at Deutsche Bank Securities and before that was co-head of global capital markets at Deutsche Bank. He has also worked as .......

    Job Swaps 21 March 2013

  • Formula-based ratings approaches critiqued

    S&P has published its response to the Basel Committee's consultative document on revisions to the Basel securitisation framework (SCI passim). The agency believes that the proposals include some positive elements, while also raising a number of significant concerns.

    Among the positive elements is the reduced potential for sharp changes in securitisation capital charges through economic cycles - the so-called 'cliff .......

    News Round-up 20 March 2013

  • Eligible investment guidelines updated

    Moody's has updated its general guidelines for the temporary investment of cash in structured finance transaction accounts, including rating standards for banks holding such accounts. The rating implementation guidance report applies globally to all structured transactions and is expected to result in a limited number of negative rating actions.

    The report provides rating standards for a transaction's eligible investments, depending .......

    News Round-up 20 March 2013

  • Falling default rate for private SLABS

    Moody's expects the annualised private student loan default rate to continue falling year-over-year in 2013, while remaining higher than pre-recession levels.

    "We will continue to see high rates of default because the unemployment rate - the key credit driver of student loan defaults - will remain high at 7%-8%," says Moody's avp-analyst Tracy Rice. "Improving unemployment will help borrowers repay .......

    News Round-up 20 March 2013

  • CLO subs steal the show

    A flurry of US CLO subordinate tranches were out for the bid yesterday. Several more senior tranches were also among the 125 CLO line items picked up by SCI's PriceABS data for the session, although names from the top of the capital structure were not so common.

    The US$24.99m CIFC 2012-1X SUB tranche was the largest subordinated tranche .......

    Market Reports 20 March 2013

  • Basel 3 monitoring study released

    The Basel Committee has published the results of its latest Basel 3 monitoring exercise. The study is based on the reporting processes set up by the Committee to periodically review the implications of the Basel 3 standards for financial markets.

    A total of 210 banks participated in the study, comprising 101 Group 1 banks (those that have Tier 1 capital .......

    News Round-up 20 March 2013

  • Solar securitisation working group convened

    The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has convened a Solar Access to Public Capital (SAPC) working group, with the aim of enabling securitisation of solar PV assets and associated cashflows. SAPC's primary efforts centre on the standardisation of power purchase agreements, leases and other documents relevant to residential and commercial deployment, as well as the development .......

    News Round-up 20 March 2013

  • Loan specialist enlisted

    Cutwater Asset Management has appointed Alex Jackson as md and head of its bank loan group. He will help expand the firm's leveraged loan and high yield capabilities and build out a related products suite, including CLO management.

    Jackson was most recently deputy cio and CLO portfolio manager at CIFC Corp. Before that, he served as portfolio manager at JH .......

    Job Swaps 20 March 2013

  • Latest Coeur Defense ruling deemed credit positive

    The 28 February decision from the Versailles Court of Appeal is a positive development in the Coeur Défense case, says Moody's. The decision confirms the enforceability of security assignments of lease receivables even upon insolvency of the lessor.

    A decision from the same court last year was deemed credit negative (SCI 26 March 2012), but the latest ruling limits the .......

    News Round-up 19 March 2013

  • Canadian ABCP performance still strong

    Performance across Canadian ABCP remains strong, according to Moody's first quarterly report for the sector, which covers 4Q12. The rating agency has also launched a new web page dedicated to Canadian structured finance.

    Of the new transactions added to the Canadian ABCP programmes in the fourth quarter of 2012, 40% were used to finance residential mortgages, 34% financed auto loans .......

    News Round-up 19 March 2013

  • US CMBS attracts attention

    Secondary supply was light across the US markets yesterday, although a good amount of CMBS did get snapped up. Total bid-list supply was around US$172m, with a further US$31m in IOs also out for the bid.

    "Generic CMBS spreads are mostly wider on the day. BWIC volume is light to start the week. In terms of supply, 2006 vintage floaters .......

    Market Reports 19 March 2013
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