Complete news archive

  • Sukuk issuance increase continues

    Global sukuk issuance grew for the fourth year in a row in 2012 and is expected to become even more mainstream over the next few years. Issuance reached about US$138bn last year and S&P notes there is "little to hinder" further strong performance.

    Malaysian sovereign and sovereign-related issuers largely dominate issuance, with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries also contributing a .......

    News Round-up 12 March 2013

  • Capital markets legal pro added

    Jaroslaw Hawrylewicz has joined O'Melveny & Myers in New York as senior counsel. The structured products and derivatives specialist will be a member of the firm's capital markets practice.

    Hawrylewicz was most recently head of the equity derivatives and synthetics legal group at Barclays Capital. He previously worked at Lehman Brothers as svp and began his legal career at Davis .......

    Job Swaps 12 March 2013

  • US CMBS head recruited

    Arbor Commercial Mortgage has appointed Todd Hirsch as evp and head of CMBS finance and distribution. He is based in New York and will oversee Arbor's national CMBS origination and syndication platforms.

    Hirsch was formerly md and head of European finance at Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for managing the firm's European CMBS portfolio. Previous roles within Credit Suisse .......

    Job Swaps 12 March 2013

  • Fitch adds sales chief

    Fitch Solutions has appointed Julian Acquari as global head of sales. He will be based in London and report to md Gloria Aviotti.

    Acquari will lead the firm's sales efforts for its suite of fixed income products and services. He joins from Monster.com, where he held sales and strategic planning roles, and previously led the sales team at Dun and .......

    Job Swaps 12 March 2013

  • Euro 2.0?

    European CLO market back, but not as before

    Cairn CLO III printed last month, reopening the European CLO market after a lengthy hiatus. Further deals from Pramerica and New Amsterdam Capital Management are set to follow and could mark a shift towards a European 2.0 market.

    The Cairn CLO III deal priced on 20 February, with several features that have become common in US CLOs over the last .......

    News Analysis 12 March 2013

  • Credit index futures prepped

    ICE is set to introduce four credit index futures contracts starting in May. The contracts will be based on the Markit CDX (IG and HY) and iTraxx (Main and Crossover) indices, and are subject to review by the CFTC.

    The Markit CDX and iTraxx credit index futures contracts are designed to allow credit market participants to access and hedge the .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • SCI Start the Week - 11 March

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

    Pipeline
    Last week was the busiest the pipeline has been for a while, largely due to five new CMBS being announced. There were also four new CLOs, three ABS, two ILS and an RMBS.

    The CMBS were US$240m Citigroup Commercial Mortgage Trust 2013-SMP, US$342m COMM 2013-GAM, US$1.07bn FREMF 2013-K502, US$275m LCCM 2013-GCP and US$160m MSC 2013-ALTM. The newly-announced CLOs consisted of .......

    News 11 March 2013

  • Asset finance partner named

    Berwin Leighton Paisner has promoted a raft of senior associates to its partnership, including asset finance group member Jamie Wiseman-Clarke. He is based in London and the appointment is effective from 1 May 2013.

    .......

    Job Swaps 11 March 2013

  • CRE intelligence hub launches

    A customisable, real-time business intelligence hub for the global commercial real estate industry dubbed myCREOpoint has launched. It is intended to help market participants mitigate risk, generate business and save time.

    myCREOpoint has been under development for over two years with support from an advisory board that includes Hearst business development vp Patrick Brennan, former Apple Computers board member Phil .......

    Job Swaps 11 March 2013

  • Direction change for German house prices

    The rise in German house prices in 2011-2012 was less pronounced in the wealthiest parts of the country, reports Fitch. This is a deviation from the long-term trend which has seen prices fall fastest in the wealthiest regions, suggesting that demand may be moving from less affordable houses to more affordable apartments.

    Fitch calculates that house prices in the wealthiest .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • New iTraxx series to trade wider

    The provisional membership list for the new Series 19 iTraxx indices has been published ahead of its 20 March launch. The changes between the new and old series are in line with market expectations, according to credit strategists at Citi.

    There will be four name changes in iTraxx Main, all due to liquidity considerations, and six changes in Crossover. The .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • ABS CDO on the block

    An auction is being held for Independence IV CDO on 28 March. The collateral will be sold only if the proceeds are at least equal to the auction call redemption amount. The underlying assets comprise RMBS, CMBS and ABS CDO securities.

    .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • EMIR protocol launched

    ISDA has launched the March 2013 EMIR Non-Financial Counterparty (NFC) Representation Protocol and a Timely Confirmation Amendment Agreement. The two documents are the first in a series of tools that ISDA plans to make available to market participants to facilitate their compliance with EMIR.

    The former document is designed to allow swap market participants to simultaneously amend multiple ISDA Master .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • Loan mods help drive delinquencies lower

    Two large loan modifications helped drive US CMBS delinquencies lower for a ninth straight month, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. CMBS late-pays declined by 30bp in February to 7.61%, from 7.91% a month earlier. In addition, the dollar balance of delinquent loans fell below the US$30bn mark for the first time since February 2010.

    The sharp .......

    News Round-up 11 March 2013

  • Mortgage vet to oversee integration

    Vericrest Financial has appointed Joe Anderson as chairman and ceo, effective immediately. He will lead the integration of Vericrest with Caliber Funding as the firms combine to create a full-service residential mortgage banking organisation offering both loan origination and servicing solutions.

    Anderson was formerly senior md of Countrywide Home Loans' prime retail lending division, leading all origination channels. He has .......

    Job Swaps 8 March 2013

  • Third stress test completed

    The largest US bank holding companies have continued to improve their ability to withstand an extremely adverse hypothetical economic scenario and are collectively in a much stronger capital position than before the financial crisis, according to the Fed's latest stress test summary results.

    Reflecting the severity of the stress scenario - which includes a peak unemployment rate of 12.1%, a .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2013

  • REC 6 hit by low recovery projections

    Fitch has downgraded Alburn Real Estate Capital (REC 6)'s class A, B and C notes and affirmed the class D and E notes. The CMBS tranches are now all rated single-C, reflecting the insufficient residual collateral value in the transaction to repay the class A notes in full by their maturity in October 2016.

    Fitch estimates that 25% of the .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2013

  • CMBS pay-offs dip

    The percentage of US CMBS loans paying off on their balloon date has exceeded 60% for the fifth time in the last six months, according to Trepp's January pay-off report. In February, 61.8% of loans reaching their balloon date paid off - a decrease of about five percentage points from the January reading. The rate is well above the 12-month .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2013

  • RMBS ticks over as secondary supply slows

    US RMBS non-agency secondary supply was notably lighter in yesterday's session. A number of names were successfully covered, however, with dealer talk showing slight movement.

    BWIC volume for non-agency RMBS was US$326m, according to Interactive Data. "Bid-list supply is down across all major collateral segments, with this week's aggregate total running at the lowest level observed year-to-date. Dealer offering levels .......

    Market Reports 8 March 2013

  • Q4 CMBS loss severities analysed

    The weighted average loss severity for all loans backing US CMBS that liquidated at a loss was 40.8% in 4Q12, the same as the prior quarter, Moody's reports. From 1 January to 15 December 2012, US$15.8bn of CMBS loans liquidated, consistent with the same period from the previous year.

    The weighted average loss severity for all liquidated loans, excluding those .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2013

  • Stable outlook for Canadian ABS

    Moody's outlook remains stable for Canadian auto and credit card ABS and for the country's seven covered bond programmes. The stable outlook reflects the very strong collateral attributes in both credit card and auto ABS in Canada. Neither sector is expected to be able to match their strong 2012 levels of issuance, however.

    Although originators of auto loans continue to .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2013
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