Complete news archive

  • False ratings claims case settled

    Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR) and its president Sean Egan have agreed to settle charges which were brought by the US SEC last year (SCI 25 April 2012), without accepting or denying the claims. The SEC claimed EJR and Egan made wilful misstatements and omissions when registering to become an NRSRO for ABS.

    EJR and Egan have consented to an SEC .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2013

  • More foreclosure settlements reached

    Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have reached agreements in principle with the Federal Reserve Board to pay US$557m to help mortgage borrowers. The agreements are similar to those announced two weeks ago between 10 servicers and the OCC and Fed (SCI 9 January).

    Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had been subject to enforcement actions for deficient practices in mortgage loan .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2013

  • Continuum, Grosvenor tie-up announced

    Continuum Investment Management and Grosvenor Capital Management have formed a strategic partnership. It is the third such partnership Grosvenor has entered into since it launched its emerging manager programme at the start of last year.

    Continuum seeks to capitalise on prepayment and credit-centric market opportunities across RMBS, CMBS and other ABS opportunities. It is led by cio Kevin Scherer, who .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2013

  • Asset manager adds Germany chief

    BlueBay Asset Management has appointed Steven Bayly as head of sales for Germany. His primary focus will be to target the local institutional investor base.

    Bayly joins from BlackRock, where he was head of institutional business for Germany and Austria and a member of the firm's German executive committee. Before that he was head of domestic fixed income at Deutsche .......

    Job Swaps 23 January 2013

  • Europe leads sovereign CDS rally

    Global sovereign CDS prices tightened by 16% in 4Q12 overall, as fears of a euro exit were allayed, according to CMA (part of S&P Capital IQ). The firm's latest Global Sovereign Debt Credit Risk Report names its top-ten most and least risky sovereigns, as well as the best and worst performers of the quarter.

    The report states that Western Europe .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2013

  • Russia primed for covered bond expansion

    The covered bond market in Russia is expected to expand rapidly as the instrument proves to be an effective funding source for the country's residential mortgage market. Moody's last month assigned a first-time Baa1 rating to the series 09-IP covered bonds issued by DeltaCredit Bank, the first rating issued in the jurisdiction under the agency's covered bond methodology.

    Covered bonds .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2013

  • Future of ABCP to be determined

    US ABCP outstandings are likely to remain flat or modestly decline, according to S&P, until the SEC clarifies the extent to which the Volcker Rule will apply to ABCP conduits. If the SEC determines that the Volcker Rule will apply in all respects to ABCP conduits, the agency projects outstandings to decline from US$308.9bn to US$230bn-US$250bn by end-2013. However, if .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2013

  • LCDS auction due

    An auction to settle the credit derivative trades for Pages Jaunes Hold Co (Mediannuaire) LCDS is to be held. The date of the auction will be advised in due course.

    .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2013

  • LEI implementation awaited

    Fitch Solutions says that the introduction of global legal entity identifiers (LEIs) in March 2013 - designed to accurately identify which legal entities are involved in financial transactions - is a critically important step, but the rate of adoption by global regulators will determine the timeframe in which the benefits are fully realised.

    LEIs are expected to provide many benefits, .......

    News Round-up 22 January 2013

  • Hatfield ceo moves on

    Clarence Dixon has become the latest in a string of high-profile departures from Hatfield Philips. He is understood to be leaving his position as ceo of Hatfield International to go to CBRE.

    .......

    Job Swaps 22 January 2013

  • Year of the cat?

    ILS issuance and innovation to increase

    Vitality Re IV - the first catastrophe bond of 2013 - priced last week as the insurance-linked securities market got up and running. Supply this year is expected to reach new heights, while further innovation and diversification are also forecast.

    "To already have a deal in the market is a good start. We are used to seeing deals coming early .......

    News Analysis 22 January 2013

  • Private debt fund launched

    Tikehau Investment Management has launched its first private debt fund accessible to retail clients. The Tikehau Financement Privé fund is invested mainly in equity-linked mezzanine financial securities.

    The new fund will accept investments from 31 January to 31 July 2013. It gives private investors access to the financing of mid-sized companies and allows any investor to gain exposure to this .......

    Job Swaps 22 January 2013

  • Aircraft ABS eyed for yield

    Aircraft ABS prices rallied during the third and fourth quarter, as investors sought to add risk, especially in assets that provide extra yield. ABS analysts at Wells Fargo note that the aircraft ABS market has neatly bifurcated by vintage, with limited overlap in the investor bases for the two different types.

    Older pre-9/11 deals now price at or near the .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • Rental 'equity' structures critiqued

    A legal structure that potential issuers have proposed for transactions backed by cashflows from single-family rental properties poses substantial credit risks, according to Moody's. In the so-called 'equity' structure - which differs from the legal structure for most ABS - investors will not have the benefit of a direct lien on the underlying collateral. Instead, these structures provide investors with .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • Assured wraps targeted

    Moody's has downgraded the ratings of 225 classes of US structured finance securities wrapped by Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp (AGM), Assured Guaranty Corp (AGC) and their affiliated insurance operating companies. The affected securities include certain RMBS, ABS, structured notes and Trups CDOs.

    The action is solely driven by the agency's downgrade of the insurer's insurance financial strength (IFS) ratings (SCI .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • TBA liquidity underlined

    The presence of the to-be-announced (TBA) market provides greater liquidity to agency MBS, according to a recent New York Fed study. Authors James Vickery and Joshua Wright document in their report the market's robust liquidity, even during the financial crisis.

    The authors also present preliminary evidence that the liquidity of the TBA market raises MBS prices and lowers mortgage interest .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • CRE CDO late-pays end 2012 up

    Though a decline since the previous month, US CRE CDO late-pays finished the year higher than at year-end 2011, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector. CRE CDO delinquencies for December came in at 13.4%, down from 13.7% in November.

    However, they are higher than the 12.5% observed in December 2011. The historical high-water mark for CRE CDO .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • 'Higher-priced' mortgage appraisal rules set

    The US Fed, CFPB, FDIC, FHFA, NCUA and OCC have released the final rule that establishes new appraisal requirements for 'higher-priced mortgage loans' under Dodd-Frank. Mortgage loans are higher-priced if they are secured by a consumer's home and have interest rates above certain thresholds.

    For higher-priced mortgage loans, the rule requires creditors to use a licensed or certified appraiser that .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • Volume of aged loans in foreclosure falls

    The number of aged loans in foreclosure fell for most servicers of US RMBS in 3Q12. This is a promising trend for servicers, according to Moody's, and indicates that servicers are finally putting behind them the operational and regulatory issues that plagued them in the past and are taking the steps necessary to address their backlogged foreclosure inventory.

    However, foreclosure .......

    News Round-up 21 January 2013

  • SCI Start the Week - 21 January

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

    Pipeline
    Last week ABS was in the minority for once in terms of new additions to the pipeline. A single ABS - an auto deal - was joined by two RMBS, two CMBS and a CLO.

    The ABS was Volkswagen's €952.5m Driver Ten auto loans securitisation. The RMBS comprised €526.5m Dutch MBS XVIII and €752.2m STORM 2013-1.

    The CMBS were US$1.49bn .......

    News 21 January 2013

  • GRAND progress beats expectations

    Deutsche Annington has agreed partial refinancing transactions of €785m for the GRAND CMBS. Net of costs and other cash usage, this represents 71.5% of the principal amount needed to comply with the restructuring conditions for 2013, according to CMBS analysts at Barclays Capital.

    The largest portion of the new financing (€657m) will be provided by Berlin Hyp, which plans to .......

    News 18 January 2013
×