Complete news archive

  • Canadian covered bond framework published

    Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has released details of the legal framework for Canadian covered bonds. The framework is designed to support financial stability by helping lenders further diversify their sources of funding and by attracting more international investors to the market for Canadian covered bonds.

    "The new framework establishes a high standard of disclosure for covered bonds for .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Spanish SME assumptions revised

    Moody's has revised its key collateral assumptions in 94 Spanish SME ABS. In most cases, the new loss assumptions have had no rating impact due to sufficient credit enhancement levels. However, the agency has taken individual rating actions on a small number of transactions with insufficient credit enhancement.

    These revisions follow Moody's review of the entire Spanish SME and small .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Bankruptcy credit event called

    ISDA's Americas Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has resolved that a bankruptcy credit event occurred in respect of Edison Mission Energy. An auction will be held in respect of outstanding CDS transactions referencing the entity. Further information regarding the auction will be published in due course.

    .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • ICE buy-side support strengthened

    MarkitSERV has enhanced its connectivity and trade management support for buy-side clearing of credit default swap transactions at ICE Clear Credit. The first production trades using MarkitSERV's enhanced service were cleared by ICE on 28 November. The latest enhancement supports an additional ICE Clear Credit API and allows clearing members the ability to perform take-up using their existing integration to .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Allied World makes ILS acquisition

    Allied World Assurance Company Holdings plans to expand its Allied World Financial Services platform through the purchase of a minority stake in Aeolus Capital Management. As well as acquiring a minority stake in the ILS asset manager, Allied World will increase the amount of capital it deploys in the reinsurance and retrocession market through Aeolus and will extend its capital .......

    Job Swaps 19 December 2012

  • Stable outlook for Japanese RMBS

    S&P expects the credit quality of Japanese RMBS to remain relatively stable over the next 12 months. This outlook is based on the agency's view that positive factors for performance - such as a relatively low unemployment rate and prolonged, record-low interest rates - will continue to offset the negatives, including a decline in property prices and a slow-down in .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Carrington targets real estate markets

    Christopher Whalen has joined Carrington Holding Company as evp and md for Carrington Investment Services, and will lead its investment banking operations. He will focus on fundraising as well as developing and marketing new products for Carrington's various business units.

    Carrington says Whalen's appointment will be key in growing the company's influence in the institutional mortgage and real estate markets. .......

    Job Swaps 19 December 2012

  • Securitisation framework revisions proposed

    The Basel Committee has published a consultative paper entitled 'Revisions to the Basel Securitisation Framework'. The Committee says its objectives are: to make capital requirements more prudent and risk-sensitive; to mitigate mechanistic reliance on external credit ratings; and to reduce current cliff effects in capital requirements.

    There are three major elements to the proposed revised framework. First, two possible hierarchies .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Italian ABS assumptions revised

    Moody's has revised key collateral assumptions in 41 Italian ABS transactions backed by leases and loans to SMEs. The new loss assumptions generally have no rating impact, but the agency has taken individual rating actions on a small number of transactions with insufficient credit enhancement.

    The rating revisions follow Moody's review of the entire Italian lease and SME ABS sectors .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • DSA guidelines are RMBS positive

    The investor reporting guidelines proposed by the Dutch Securitisation Association (DSA) will substantially improve the quantity and quality of information available to investors in Dutch RMBS, says Fitch. The agency expects reporting which complies with the DSA's framework to warrant issuer report grades (IRGs) of at least 4 stars, higher than the current 2-star average.

    Loan-level disclosure is not part .......

    News Round-up 19 December 2012

  • Transition time

    CDS product development and growth anticipated

    Next year will be a watershed for credit derivatives, as the market is scheduled to transition to a centrally-cleared and electronically-traded environment that is expected to be a more transparent channel for trading and investing. Product development and growth are anticipated as a result, with CDS being perceived less as a standalone product and more as one of a range .......

    News Analysis 19 December 2012

  • Asian attraction

    Yield available, although challenges remain

    The structured finance markets in Asia face significant constraining factors in 2013. A preference for covered bonds will limit RMBS issuance on the mainland, while deal volume in Japan and Australia is expected to be flat to lower, with demand continuing to outstrip supply.

    Gregory Park, managing partner at Northstone Peak, notes that the structured finance market in Asia remains .......

    News Analysis 19 December 2012

  • ILS manager reshuffles, proposes board additions

    Twelve Capital has nominated two independent board members to boost its insurance and capital markets business and named a new managing partner. The firm strengthened its risk and operations teams just last month (SCI 12 November).

    Effective as of 1 January, Twelve Capital will propose the election of Frank Schnewlin and Andreas Casutt to the board of directors. Schnewlin is .......

    Job Swaps 19 December 2012

  • Rally drivers

    US ABS recovery subject to potential shocks

    The US ABS market rallied strongly in 2012, with CLO and CMBS issuance volumes in particular surprising many. A substantial recovery is anticipated in most areas next year, although this remains subject to potential fiscal and regulatory shocks.

    "Across the spectrum of securitised products, 2012 has turned out to be an impressive year for investors, with substantial double-digit returns - .......

    News Analysis 18 December 2012

  • Not giving in

    Solid 2013 anticipated for European securitisation

    The European securitisation market has been dominated by regulatory pressures, but - as participants become more comfortable with the changes being imposed - secondary market rallies have made primary issuance increasingly attractive. Supply in 2013 is expected to be broadly steady, with issuance anticipated right from the start of the year.

    Kevin Ingram, partner at Clifford Chance, believes that while .......

    News Analysis 18 December 2012

  • Loan-level regulatory implications noted

    Opinion is divided among market participants as to whether the ECB and Bank of England's loan-level data requirements will bring meaningful benefits for investors and whether such benefits outweigh the cost to originators of providing this information in the appropriate formats, according to Reed Smith in a recent client memo. While increased compliance costs are a disincentive to ABS issuance, .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • Tower 45 watchlisted

    Morningstar has added the US$170m Tower 45 loan - securitised in the MLCFC 2007-5 CMBS - to its watchlist, due to a small decrease in DSCR over the first half of 2012 combined with some upcoming lease rollover.

    The property has generated higher than underwritten cashflows for each of the past four years. However, the NCF has fallen off during .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • Downgraded ABCP remains investable

    Investors continue to buy the US and EMEA ABCP programmes downgraded from P-1 toP-2 in 2012, Moody's reports. For sponsors and sellers, many of the downgraded ABCP programmes remain attractive funding platforms, the agency says.

    Moody's notes that bank downgrades rather than asset deterioration drove the ABCP downgrades. "Although ABCP has traditionally been structured and marketed as a P-1 product, .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • Dutch house price expectations revised down

    Fitch has revised downwards its house price expectations for the Netherlands. The agency now expects Dutch house prices to decline by up to 25% from their peak levels, compared to previous expectations of 18%.

    This change is driven primarily by the likely changes to the tax regime and expected austerity measures, which could reduce the disposable income available to borrowers. .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • Mexican equipment ABS critiqued

    Fitch says that several recent Mexican equipment lease ABS have credit risks that may not have been adequately addressed. The agency is therefore concerned about recent transactions coming to market that carry a triple-A national scale rating from other credit rating agencies.

    Fitch highlights three key credit concerns: small, lowly-rated sponsors securitising a large portion of their balance sheet; the .......

    News Round-up 18 December 2012

  • Aladdin settles SEC MAST charge

    The US SEC has charged Aladdin Capital Management with falsely telling clients it was co-investing alongside them in two CDOs. Aladdin actually made no such investments and its affiliated broker-dealer, Aladdin Capital, collected placement fees from the CDO underwriters.

    The co-investment representation was a key selling point for its multiple asset securitised tranche (MAST) advisory programme. Aladdin Capital Management and .......

    Job Swaps 18 December 2012
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