Complete news archive

  • Credit opportunities fund minted

    BlueMountain Capital Management has closed the BlueMountain Credit Opportunities Master Fund I, its most recent and largest longer-dated credit fund, with over US$1.4bn in capital commitments. Credit Opportunities I will invest opportunistically to capture the large premium available in more complex and less liquid credit instruments.

    The fund will focus on corporate structured credit, such as CLOs and synthetic CDOs, .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2012

  • RFC issued on covered bonds, CDOs

    Fitch has published an exposure draft with respect to its criteria for the asset analysis of European public entities' covered bonds and CDOs, which includes a number of proposed amendments. The agency also proposes to update its assumptions for asset marketability of public sector assets that are part of its discontinuity analysis for covered bonds.

    The main proposals upon which .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2012

  • Cheyne SIV claim to proceed

    A federal court in New York last week ruled that investors in the failed Cheyne SIV - including named plaintiff Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank - could go forward with negligent misrepresentation claims against Morgan Stanley, which arranged and marketed the vehicle. US District Judge Shira Scheindlin dismissed plaintiffs' fraud claims against Morgan Stanley in August, but ordered them to show .......

    Job Swaps 11 October 2012

  • JPMorgan CMBS slammed

    Moody's has released an unsolicited comment on JPMCC 2012-C8, JPMorgan and CIBC's CMBS that priced on 27 September. Based on a review of publicly available information, the agency believes that all classes of the transaction below the ASB tranche lack sufficient credit enhancement relative to the ratings four other rating agencies have assigned it.

    The biggest deficiency in enhancement is .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2012

  • REIT co-founder steps up

    Annaly Capital Management has appointed Wellington Denahan-Norris as co-ceo. She co-founded Annaly alongside ceo Michael Farrell, who is stepping aside temporarily for health reasons. Kevin Keyes has been promoted to president and James Fortescue becomes coo.

    .......

    Job Swaps 11 October 2012

  • Upping sticks

    Agency MBS crowding to boost esoteric ABS

    The New York Fed's announcement last month that Operation Twist will target solely agency MBS took many by surprise (SCI 14 September). While the ramifications for the RMBS market are fairly obvious, the knock-on effects for less frequented asset classes are just as significant.

    Structured credit consultant Dan Castro says the Fed's expected agency MBS purchases will force investors to .......

    News Analysis 11 October 2012

  • Secondary RMBS supply rockets

    US non-agency RMBS supply spiked yesterday. SCI's PriceABS BWIC data shows over 100 RMBS line items for the session, with volume reported to have comfortably exceeded US$1bn.

    Interactive Data figures put total non-agency supply at US$1.166bn for yesterday's session, largely driven by subprime CDO liquidations. All-or-none execution remains popular with sellers and levels have been holding steady, despite broader .......

    Market Reports 11 October 2012

  • Low take-up for Totta exchange

    The take-up for Banco Santander Totta's (BST) offer to exchange three RMBS bonds into a covered bond has been limited (SCI 28 September). HIPOT 1R A saw no bonds accepted, while only €3m of amortised principal was accepted across HIPOT 4 A and HIPOT 5 A2.

    This represents only 0.14% of the current amount outstanding and only 0.25% of bonds .......

    News Round-up 10 October 2012

  • Risk management practises surveyed

    Increased capital requirements have forced 25% of financial institutions to exit capital-intensive business lines, according to the Professional Risk Managers' Association's (PRMIA) fourth annual survey, which was co-sponsored by SunGard. A further 58% of the respondents admit that they are more selective when undertaking capital-intensive businesses, while 18% say they would pass on extra capital costs to clients.

    The survey .......

    News Round-up 10 October 2012

  • JSCC debuts IRS clearing

    The Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) has become the first clearing organisation in the Asia-Pacific region to clear yen-denominated interest rate swaps, strengthening the post-trade infrastructure for the Japanese OTC market. Catalyst Development has advised JSCC throughout the process, deploying specialists in all aspects of clearing, including risk management, regulation, operations, settlement and technology.

    .......

    News Round-up 10 October 2012

  • CRE compendium launched

    CRE Finance Council and Morningstar have launched the CREFC Compendium of Statistics. The Compendium features data from Morningstar Credit Ratings' surveillance group covering all facets of the CMBS market.

    The data, which will be updated monthly, covers: securities issuance; loans outstanding, categorised by both deal and property type; CMBS delinquencies by month, property type and vintage; special serviced loans by .......

    News Round-up 10 October 2012

  • Positive signs for shadow inventory

    S&P's estimate for the time it will take to clear the shadow inventory on the non-agency US mortgage market fell to 40 months in 2Q12, down from 46 months in the previous quarter. This is the biggest single-quarter improvement since the agency began tracking it in 2009 and is also the lowest estimate of months-to-clear since the beginning of 2010.

    News Round-up 10 October 2012

  • CLO manager adds trading vet

    Stan Sokolowski has joined CIFC Corp as senior portfolio manager and head of corporate credit funds management. He was most recently at Lucidus Capital Partners and previously founded the European par and distressed loan trading business in London.

    .......

    Job Swaps 10 October 2012

  • RBC enters CDO space

    Allen Fu has joined RBC Capital Markets in New York. He becomes head of CDO trading, opening up a new line of business for the firm.

    Fu joins from Citigroup, where he also traded CDOs. He will report to Mike Meyer, global head of credit.

    .......

    Job Swaps 10 October 2012

  • CLO fees, performance examined

    Moody's Analytics has published the second study of a two-part series on US CLO management fees (see also SCI 7 September), which analyses correlations between fee structure and deal performance. It finds that senior fees in 2012 transactions have remained in line with 2011 and pre-2008 levels, while subordinate fees have dipped to an average of 29bp, with only 2008 .......

    News 10 October 2012

  • Rising prices seen in UK prime

    A slew of UK RMBS paper hit the secondary market yesterday, with a mixed bag of names out for the bid. Vintage prime senior bonds appear to be on a rising trend from summer levels, according to SCI's PriceABS BWIC data.

    The increases are most pronounced across Granite paper. A £8m slice of GRAN 2004-1 3A was covered during the .......

    Market Reports 10 October 2012

  • Commercial mortgage servicers evolving

    S&P has published a report on the challenges that European commercial mortgage servicers currently face and how they are responding to them. It highlights that primary and special servicers now have more work - with both functions becoming more complex and the latter dealing with increased volumes as more loans show signs of stress.

    "Amid the financial downturn, many European .......

    News Round-up 9 October 2012

  • MBS finds favour among HFAs

    As US public finance issuers face increasing competition from commercial lenders for first-time low- to moderate-income homebuyers, they've branched out from traditional financing options to find alternatives to mortgage revenue bonds, according to S&P. To examine the shift in funding and its long-term credit implications for the housing finance agency (HFA) sector, the agency surveyed five state HFAs that have .......

    News Round-up 9 October 2012

  • Aviation, SF partner added

    Stephenson Harwood has appointed Saugata Mukherjee as a partner in its aviation and structured finance practice in Singapore. He will report to Paul Ng, global head of aviation.

    Mukherjee previously worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London in the structured and asset finance group and has also worked at Goldman Sachs. He specialises in aircraft financing structures, derivatives and structured .......

    Job Swaps 9 October 2012

  • Lehman settlement agreed

    The SIPC trustee for Lehman Brothers Inc (LBI) and the joint administrator of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE) have agreed in principle to resolve all claims - approximately US$38bn in the aggregate - between their respective entities. The proposed settlement is subject to approval by the US bankruptcy court and the English High Court, but sets the stage for distributions .......

    Job Swaps 8 October 2012

  • Harrier assets transferred

    The assets and obligations of the Harrier Finance Funding SIV have been assigned from West LB/Portigon (WLP) to Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), acting as sponsor bank. The move follows the cessation of WLP's banking activities.

    Moody's has determined that the novation of the security assignment will not cause the current ratings of the notes to be reduced or withdrawn. The agency .......

    Job Swaps 8 October 2012
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