Complete news archive

  • Eminent domain RFC issued

    The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has sent to the Federal Register a notice indicating its concern with the proposed use of eminent domain to restructure performing home loans and inviting public input. The agency says it has significant concerns about the use of eminent domain to revise existing financial contracts and the alteration of the value of the companies' .......

    News Round-up 9 August 2012

  • PF CDO criteria replaced

    Fitch has withdrawn its global rating criteria for project finance (PF) CDOs, to be replaced by its corporate CDO criteria with certain sector-specific amendments.

    The agency will model portfolio performance using the portfolio credit model (PCM) as described in the corporate criteria, but apply specifically calibrated correlation assumptions. It defines five main sectors for project finance: public-private partnerships (PPP)/public finance .......

    News Round-up 9 August 2012

  • Greek resi criteria updated

    Fitch has updated its criteria assumptions for assessing credit risk in Greek residential mortgage loan pools. While the move isn't expected to impact the current ratings of Fitch-rated transactions, the agency expects negative rating actions based on performance seen to date.

    The main changes relate to worsening house price and default expectations, reflecting the significant deterioration of employment and growth .......

    News Round-up 9 August 2012

  • Chinese trio hit the market

    Shanghai Pudong Road & Bridge Construction Co, Ningbo Urban Construction Investment Holding Co and Nanjing Public Holdings (Group) Co have become the first Chinese local government infrastructure firms to issue asset-backed notes (ABNs) under the country's revived pilot securitisation programme (SCI 12 June). The move follows the release of new guidance by the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors .......

    News Round-up 9 August 2012

  • Back to basis

    Extreme basis opens trade opportunities

    Real money accounts have been buying into cash as a safe haven, but doing so has made the cash market excessively expensive compared to CDS. The strongly positive basis that has consequently emerged provides a plethora of opportunities for investors.

    The situation is similar to a few years ago, where de-levering by banks, hedge funds and real money investors saw .......

    News Analysis 9 August 2012

  • CMBS payoff rate drops

    The percentage of US CMBS loans paying off on their balloon date hit a 12-month low last month, according to the Trepp July 2012 Payoff Report. Only 26.3% of loans reaching their balloon date paid off in July.

    By comparison, in May the payoff rate registered a paltry 29.4% - the lowest reading since October 2010, when the payoff percentage .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • Mixed messages for Euro CLOs

    The European CLO market appears to be slightly subdued, following a couple of days of strongly contrasting BWIC activity. After beginning the month slightly weakly, the market tightened remarkably on Thursday.

    "This week the market has not been very busy, but we know we may be missing things. There are some BWICs from banks that only deal with dealers, for .......

    Market Reports 8 August 2012

  • German resi criteria tweaked

    Fitch has updated its criteria assumptions for German residential mortgage loan pools. The updated assumptions are not expected to result in rating actions on existing RMBS or covered bond transactions.

    Given that there has been no major deterioration on important economic indicators and unemployment is expected to remain at historical low levels, no changes have been made on the foreclosure .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • REO-to-rent approaches evolving

    In response to inquiries about REO-to-rental transactions, Fitch has offered insight as to how it would consider key risks associated with the securitisation of single-family rental properties (SFRs). A securitisation framework has yet to be developed for the asset class and the agency notes that its approach is still evolving.

    With the private label RMBS market stalled and the number .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • Irish RMBS hit

    Fitch has downgraded 10 tranches from six Irish RMBS transactions and affirmed a further 29 tranches from nine transactions. The downgrades affect Celtic 11, Emerald 4, Kildare, Pirus and Lansdowne 1 and 2, given that more recent deals benefit from higher levels of credit enhancement. The outlook on all tranches remains negative due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Irish .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • Insurer investment performance underlined

    CRE Finance Council and Trepp have released the results of a recent survey of commercial mortgage investment performance within the insurance company sector. The survey was used to gather previously unavailable industry data for use in assessing investment performance during the downturn and for general benchmarking purposes.

    Insurance companies representing nearly half of the industry's total mortgage exposure, with US$150bn .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • FpML swap coverage strengthened

    ISDA has published its Recommendation for FpML version 5.3, with the aim of establishing a robust technical framework for global regulatory reporting requirements. The focus in this version is coverage of the CFTC reporting requirements to swap data repositories and for real-time reporting purposes.

    Besides the coverage for specific CFTC-mandated data fields, work has been ongoing to represent the unique .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • CMBX.6 prepped

    Markit is believed to be readying CMBX.6, which will reference post-crisis CMBS transactions. The new index is expected to launch by the beginning of 2013 and comprise of six sub-indices corresponding to the triple-A, AS, double-A, single-A and triple-B minus tranches of 20-25 CMBS 3.0 deals.

    CMBS strategists at RBS suggest that CMBX.6 may serve as a more efficient hedging .......

    News Round-up 8 August 2012

  • Securitisation partner enlisted

    Kenneth Wright has joined SNR Denton as capital markets partner. He was at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and will be based in SNR's New York office, reporting to Stephen Kudenholdt.

    Wright represents issuers, underwriters and dealers and his practice focuses on a range of traditional securitisation asset classes and structures, including trade accounts payable, auto loans and leases, .......

    Job Swaps 8 August 2012

  • Pick-up seen in secondary ABS

    Activity in the secondary US ABS market has picked up, following light volumes last week, albeit with spread levels remaining firm. Credit card, auto and student loan paper was out for bid yesterday.

    Among the auto ABS circulating during the session, SCI's PriceABS data shows that US$5.28m in face of the AMOT 2011-1 A1 tranche was covered at .......

    News Round-up 7 August 2012

  • Mezz ABS CDO supply due

    The latest Maiden Lane III sale - which saw US$4.45bn of current face across nine high grade ABS CDOs trade (SCI 1 August) - was met with strong demand from retail accounts looking to add exposure to the sector, especially given the recent rally in non-agency RMBS. AIG has also emerged as a large acquirer of assets from the sales.

    News Round-up 7 August 2012

  • Duke auction set

    An auction of Duke Funding High Grade I CDO collateral has been scheduled for 22 August. The portfolio comprises US$1.74bn of paper, divided into agency RMBS, Alt-A RMBS, subprime RMBS and CMBS sub-pools.

    The trustee will sell the assets only if the sale results in proceeds greater than or equal to an auction call redemption amount. Settlement is due on .......

    News Round-up 7 August 2012

  • Enhanced granularity offered

    Interactive Data Corporation has enhanced the FINRA-Interactive Data structured trading aggregate reports available in Vantage, its web application. With additional layers of granularity, financial institutions can now obtain a more complete view of trading activity related to securitised products, the company says.

    A new agency hybrid ARMS trade reporting summary and more granular trading tables are now available via Vantage. .......

    News Round-up 7 August 2012

  • Absolute return fund launches

    Ignis Asset Management has launched the Ignis Absolute Return Credit Fund, which is designed to produce positive performance in all market conditions. The fund is managed by Chris Bowie, head of credit, and his 14-strong credit team.

    It is a pure alpha, market-neutral fund targeting a low level of volatility (2%-6%), zero duration and zero interest rate risk and a .......

    News Round-up 7 August 2012

  • REIT recruits securitisation vet

    James Mountain is joining ARMOUR Residential REIT as cfo, effective from the start of next month. He joins from Deloitte & Touche and will replace Jeffrey Zimmer, who will continue to serve as co-ceo and co-chairman alongside Scott Ulm.

    Mountain is currently an industry professional practice director for Deloitte, overseeing the professional and quality control aspects of the firm's practice. .......

    Job Swaps 7 August 2012

  • BNY builds RMBS group

    BNY Mellon Capital Markets has recruited an eight-person RMBS team from Ally Securities. The team will be led by Dave Piersol as head of MBS sales and Joe Gaziano as head of MBS pass-through trading.

    Piersol held senior sales roles at JPMorgan, Bank of America, Greenwich Capital and Morgan Stanley before Ally. Also joining the sales team are David Clifford, .......

    Job Swaps 7 August 2012
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