Complete news archive

  • Improvement seen in Japan consumer credit

    Moody's reports that the overall credit quality of all consumer asset classes in Japan's ABS market has improved. The agency expects the sector to remain stable, even in the face of severe unemployment and a decline in income levels.

    The Japanese ABS default rate is generally stable. The default rates of card cash advances and consumer finance loans, for instance, .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Japanese RMBS prepays rising

    Moody's reports that Japanese RMBS prepayment rates continue to increase significantly, because of falling interest rates and strong competition in the mortgage market. At the same time, default and delinquency rates have remained stable.

    The agency says this is due to: the creditworthiness of borrowers in Japanese RMBS asset pools being higher than the average credit quality of employees in .......

    News Round-up 29 November 2012

  • Fund settles over fair value charge

    The US SEC has charged three executives at KCAP Financial for overstating its assets during the financial crisis. KCAP, a publically traded fund regulated as a BDC, had an asset portfolio consisting mainly of corporate debt securities and CLO investments.

    The SEC says KCAP did not account for certain market activity in determining the fair value of its debt securities .......

    Job Swaps 29 November 2012

  • B-piece growth predicted

    S&P suggests that the number of active B-piece buyers should not constrain US CMBS issuance in 2013. The agency puts the total size of the non-agency B-piece market in 2012 at about US$1.8bn, absorbed by eight buyers.

    The leading B-piece buyer this year has been Rialto Capital (accounting for six deals), closely followed by Eightfold Capital (five), according to S&P. .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • Italian RMBS reviewed

    Moody's has downgraded three senior notes and 10 junior notes across seven Italian RMBS, further to its reassessment of all rated Italian RMBS. The rating agency's reassessment takes into consideration: its updated European RMBS rating methodology; ongoing collateral performance deterioration; and the deterioration of the ratings of the Italian sovereign and the transactions' counterparties over the last 12 months.

    The .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • Liquidation boosts RMBS supply

    Tuesday proved a busy session for the secondary US RMBS sector. Non-agency BWIC volume was up by 40% on Monday's levels to an estimated US$687m, with SCI's PriceABS data showing subprime talk edging higher.

    "Subprime maintains its position as the most active sub-sector, propped up by a morning CDO liquidation," notes Interactive Data. "In the ARM space, less .......

    Market Reports 28 November 2012

  • Pricing platform strengthened

    Numerix has released Numerix CrossAsset version 10.2. New functionality includes: innovative risk techniques to accelerate the computation of exposures and CVA/PFE for large portfolios of swaps; performance enhancements to improve CVA calculation time for portfolios of credit derivatives and the addition of the CIR model for credit pricing and CDS valuation; and the inclusion of PaymentStream Builder, which allows users .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • Basis switch increases Dutch appeal

    Dutch RMBS currently offers particularly cheap exposure to core Europe. The traditional Dutch/UK prime RMBS basis has completely reversed from the beginning of the year, with front-pay bonds and longer-dated back-pays especially attractive.

    "While other European vanilla ABS markets have rallied strongly during the course of 2012, Dutch RMBS pricing remained relatively sticky and has largely not benefited from the .......

    News 28 November 2012

  • IM concerns highlighted

    ISDA has published an analysis of initial margin (IM) requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivatives under current regulatory proposals. The analysis is based upon data submitted by member firms to the Basel Committee and IOSCO joint Working Group on Margining Requirements (WGMR), as part of its Quantitative Impact Study.

    The findings highlight three significant industry concerns (see also SCI 23 .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • Restructuring credit event called

    ISDA's Asia Ex-Japan Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has resolved that a restructuring credit event occurred in respect of GTL Infrastructure. The move follows GTL Infrastructure's issuance of, by way of a cashless exchange, US$111.74m zero coupon compulsorily convertible bonds due 2017 and US$207.55m interest bearing convertible bonds due 2017 and the cancellation of its US$300m zero coupon convertible bonds due .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • MBIA indenture amendments completed

    MBIA says it has successfully completed a consent solicitation resulting in the amendments to indentures governing its 6.4% Senior Notes due 2022, 7% Debentures due 2025, 7.15% Debentures due 2027, 6.625% Debentures due 2028 and 5.7% Senior Notes due 2034. Bank of America had previously tried to obstruct the move with a tender offer to purchase at par the monoline's .......

    News Round-up 28 November 2012

  • Loan-level reporting timelines lengthened

    The ECB has adjusted its timeline for the start of loan-level data reporting requirements as part of the Eurosystem's collateral framework, to allow for the smooth implementation of what it deems as necessary amendments to Guideline ECB/2011/14 at the national level.

    For RMBS and SME transactions, the reporting requirements will now be mandatory as of 3 January 2013. For CMBS, .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • Disclosure principles published

    IOSCO has published its final 'Principles for Ongoing Disclosure for Asset Backed Securities' report, which is designed to provide guidance to securities regulators that are developing or reviewing their regulatory regimes for ongoing disclosure for ABS. The eleven principles were developed as a complement to IOSCO's 'Disclosure Principles for Public Offerings and Listings of Asset-Backed Securities', which was issued in .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • Former credit chief joins BondFactor

    Mark Adelson has joined BondFactor as chief strategy officer. He was until recently chief credit officer and then executive md at S&P and has more than 25 years of senior level credit experience.

    Adelson specialises in RMBS and CDOs. He is a founding member of Adelson & Jacob Consulting and has previously held senior posts at Nomura and Moody's.

    .......

    Job Swaps 27 November 2012

  • More defaults predicted ahead of refi wall

    Moody's expects the EMEA CMBS refinancing wall to reach its peak in 2013, when 135 loans with a current securitised balance of €16.1bn will need to be refinanced. More maturing loans are consequently likely to default in 4Q12, as the refinancing wall approaches.

    "The combination of tight lending conditions, weak macroeconomic outlooks and the predominance of secondary quality collateral assets .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • Survey highlights 'cautious optimism'

    European fixed income investors overwhelmingly supported the ECB's decisive action last month, signalling improving fundamental credit conditions for sovereigns and banks in Fitch's quarterly investor survey. More than one-third (35%) of investors also voted for financials as their most favoured investment choice, more than doubling the 17% holding that view in the prior survey.

    Respondents expressed cautious optimism on the .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • Continued resilience for Euro ABCP

    Moody's reports that the European ABCP market has demonstrated resilience, despite uncertainty surrounding regulatory changes and the economic environment. The agency notes that investors and sponsors have increased activity when possible.

    Negative rating trends meant that the downgrades envisaged for European ABCP sponsoring banks in 2011 materialised in 2012, thereby affecting the ratings of their sponsored conduits. As a result .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • CR IM expands to meet Irish challenge

    CR Investment Management is opening an office in Dublin, led by newly-appointed director Chris Ogle. The company expects €70bn of distressed Irish real estate portfolios to come to market by 2015 and believes its expertise in the management of CRE portfolios can help resolve the distress in the market.

    Ogle was previously at Lehman Brothers and more recently served as .......

    Job Swaps 27 November 2012

  • TMAN bucks flat market trend

    The European CMBS market may be starting to wind down for the year, but the last week has still seen a fair level of activity. TMAN 7 remains among the most liquid deals, despite insolvency proceedings being opened for the Brahms loan and standstill for the Handel loan being extended until later this month (see SCI's loan events Market Reports 27 November 2012

  • Cov-lite comeback analysed

    US covenant-lite loans have made a significant comeback in the leveraged finance market, reflecting investor willingness to take on more risk in exchange for higher yields, according to Fitch. Cov-lite loan issuance totals US$49bn year-to-date.

    Cov-lite issuance represented 31% of institutional loan issuance in October alone, the highest percentage since the end of the financial crisis. The growth of both .......

    News Round-up 27 November 2012

  • Clarity increasing on RMBS settlements

    Mortgage litigation settlements have accelerated in recent months. Increasing clarity around potential outcomes is consequently expected to help in restarting the non-agency RMBS market.

    The most common types of lawsuits relate to claims of breaches of loan representations and warranties or securities fraud in the chain of the mortgage securitisation process (SCI passim). Foreign institutions - predominantly European banks - .......

    News 26 November 2012
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