Complete news archive

  • Capital markets sales team boosted

    Sylvia Holt Williams and Grady Mosay have joined FTN Financial's sales team. They each join from Stifel Nicolaus.

    Williams was md for RMBS trading at Stifel and becomes sales svp, based in Kansas City. Mosay was vp for institutional CMO trading at Stifel and also becomes sales svp, based in Philadelphia.

    .......

    Job Swaps 5 February 2013

  • Credit derivatives service strengthened

    ICAP has launched hazard rates and survival probabilities as part of an expanded end-of-day credit derivatives service. Launched last year in conjunction with Rapid Ratings (SCI 16 October 2012), ICAP credit derivatives closing service provides daily levels and full term structure for more than 200 European entities.

    Hazard rates are often referred to as the default intensity or conditional default .......

    News Round-up 5 February 2013

  • Investment manager adds two

    Highland Capital Management has boosted its structured credit capabilities by hiring Andrea Lloyd as credit trader and Scott Baker as director. Both will be based in the firm's Dallas office.

    Lloyd re-joins Highland from Alpha Titans and has also worked at Accenture and Citi as an analyst. She takes responsibility for trading bank loans and high yield bonds in the .......

    Job Swaps 5 February 2013

  • Coordinated response urged in Federation case

    Investors who held Federation CDO notes and used ANZ as custodian were last month informed that Lehman had 'joined' ANZ with end holders and investors which Lehman had initiated legal action against in September 2010. In a recent client memo, Structured Credit Research & Advisory note that such end holders will consequently be required to indemnify ANZ in respect of .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • Bond-for-loan takeouts scrutinised

    Bond-for-loan takeout transactions are accelerating prepayments of better credit quality loans in European CLOs. Moody's notes in its latest Credit Outlook that these accelerated prepayments are credit positive for senior notes in amortising CLOs that will receive early pay-downs, but are credit negative for mezzanine and junior CLO notes that are left exposed to collateral obligors with lower credit quality.

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • Stable performance predicted for utility ABS

    Fitch expects the stable performance of Fitch-rated US utility tariff ABS to continue, despite sector-specific and broader macroeconomic challenges.

    "Energy consumption may begin to decline as residential energy efficiency programmes mature, thus dragging down overall electric sales," comments Fitch senior director Du Trieu.

    The tepid economic recovery may also be a factor, more so amid the resolution of the US .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • SCI Start the Week - 4 February

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

    Pipeline
    A relatively quiet week for the pipeline was dominated by CMBS, with three new deals marketing. A floorplan auto ABS was also announced.

    The CMBS comprise C$250.4m Institutional Mortgage Capital series 2013-3, US$295m RBSCF 2013-SMV and US$1.1bn GSMS 2013-KYO. The ABS is US$200m Navistar Financial Dealer Note Master Owner Trust II Series 2013-1.

    Pricings
    There were just two pricings last week, .......

    News 4 February 2013

  • LMI review completed

    Moody's has concluded its review of the Australian lenders' mortgage insurance (LMI) sector, resulting in the downgrade of the ratings of three LMI companies. The insurance financial strength ratings (IFSR) of Genworth Financial Mortgage Insurance, Genworth Financial Mortgage Indemnity and QBE Lenders' Mortgage Insurance have been downgraded to A3 (from A1), A3 (from A2) and A2 (from Aa3) respectively. At .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • CRE CDO transfer mooted

    The subordinated noteholders of Sorin Real Estate CDO III are proposing to appoint Collateral Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Torchlight Investors, as successor collateral manager on the deal. At the same time, the issuer is proposing to appoint Collateral Manager as the successor advancing agent. Both roles are currently held by RE CDO Management (see SCI's CDO manager transfer .......

    Job Swaps 4 February 2013

  • CMBS loss severity ticks up

    Overall US CMBS resolution volume dropped slightly in January, according to Trepp. In addition, loans resolved with losses greater than 2% ticked up, along with loss severity.

    January average loss severity ended up at 44.39%, 733bp higher than December's 37.06%. January liquidations came in at US$1.15bn, relative to the 12-month moving average of US$1.36bn.

    The 158 loan liquidations resulted in .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • Approach to non-traditional CMBS clarified

    Appetite for non-traditional US CMBS deals is increasing. At the same time, questions as to how Fitch would assess them and whether they would warrant a triple-A rating are increasing, the agency notes.

    Fitch deems assets like sub- or non-performing loans or loans on transitional properties as falling into the non-traditional bucket. The deal structures themselves, however, don't necessarily cause .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • Firm loses ceo, retains focus

    Phil Lotz, executive chairman at Pillar Capital Holdings, will assume operational management responsibilities following the departure of ceo Chris McKeown. The company remains committed to expanding its marketing function and back office capabilities.

    Lotz was ceo at Swiss Re Capital Management and Advisory until 2007. Previous roles include co-coo of Swiss Re Financial Products and trading and management positions at .......

    Job Swaps 4 February 2013

  • Counterparty credit service debuts

    TriOptima has launched triQuantify, a counterparty credit risk analytics service for OTC derivatives. The firm has licensed Global Valuation Ltd's (GVL) software to power the new offering, which provides a full range of counterparty credit risk metrics, including credit value adjustment, funding value adjustment and potential future exposure.

    TriQuantify will also provide initial margin calculations for bilateral trades, proposed by .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2013

  • Euro price gains slowing

    European BWIC volumes for the first month of 2013 stand at €2.4bn, according to Deutsche Bank figures. This level is some 122% higher than for the same period last year, with CLOs (accounting for €600m of the volume) and CMBS (€438m) featuring heavily.

    So far this paper has been readily absorbed by the market, but analysts at the bank note .......

    Market Reports 1 February 2013

  • Bruntwood offer welcomed

    The Bruntwood Group is proposing to restructure its UK CMBS, Bruntwood Alpha. The pro-activity of the sponsor has been welcomed and - if implemented - the plan is expected to boost BRUNT 2007-1 bond prices in the secondary market, especially for the class B and C notes.

    "We view the potential restructure of the BRUNT 2007-1 transaction as the continuation .......

    News 1 February 2013

  • Paulson added to ACA complaint

    The Supreme Court of the State of New York has allowed ACA Financial Guaranty Corp to add Paulson & Co to its US$120m lawsuit against Goldman Sachs in connection with the Abacus 2007-AC1 CDO. In its complaint, ACA alleges that Goldman Sachs fraudulently induced it into insuring the Abacus CDO by misrepresenting Paulson's economic interest in the transaction, including Paulson's .......

    Job Swaps 1 February 2013

  • Mediannuaire results in

    The final price for Mediannuaire LCDS was determined to be 40. During yesterday's auction for the name, three dealers submitted initial markets, physical settlement requests and limit orders to settle trades across the market referencing the obligation.

    .......

    News Round-up 1 February 2013

  • Servicers urged to report financial statements

    Given the rising volume of CMBS loan modifications over the past two years, investors have become increasingly vocal that additional information is needed to assess the modification's impact on their investment. Detailed disclosure of the modification terms is of primary importance; however, Fitch notes that the absence of reported financial statements challenges investors' ability to assess the health of the .......

    News Round-up 1 February 2013

  • SEF connectivity 'critical'

    A recent survey, conducted by IPC Systems, has found that financial institutions are underprepared to meet the requirements these regulations will place on them even as they plan to increase their trading activity in OTC derivatives.

    "OTC derivatives trading has been hotly debated for the last few years, yet there is concern - and in some cases an outright admission .......

    News Round-up 1 February 2013

  • Cautious outlook for CMBS credit

    Measures of credit quality of loans backing new CMBS transactions in 4Q12 were comparable to levels found in late 2004, according to Moody's, indicating that underwriting still compares favourably to that of the sector's 2006-2007 peak.

    Conduit loan leverage held steady at approximately 100% Moody's loan-to-value ratio in 4Q12. Commercial property fundamentals are recovering and Moody's debt service coverage ratio .......

    News Round-up 1 February 2013

  • Sharp drop for CMBS delinquencies

    The Trepp CMBS delinquency rate dropped by 14bp to 9.57% in January, reaching its lowest level in 11 months. This drop follows a relatively stable fourth quarter, during which the rate hovered at around 9.7%.

    US$2.8bn US CMBS loans became newly delinquent in January, which put about 50bp of upward pressure on the delinquency rate. This was the second straight .......

    News Round-up 1 February 2013
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