Complete news archive

  • CRE CDO delinquencies dip

    Loan resolutions exceeded new US CRE CDO delinquencies over the past month, resulting in a net decline in Fitch's delinquency index for the sector. Delinquencies fell to 13% last month from 13.9% in April. The primary driver of the decline was the extension of the Kerzner International Portfolio loan, the agency notes.

    A modification and extension through to 2014 of .......

    News Round-up 18 June 2012

  • SCI Start the Week - 18 June

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

    Pipeline
    Several deals came and went last week for the pipeline. Come Friday evening, the only two remaining new arrivals were a US$1.24bn CMBS (JPMCC 2012-CIBX) and a US$219.9m FFELP student loans ABS (Scholar Funding Trust 2012-A).

    Pricings
    It was the busiest week in a long time for pricings. A total of 13 ABS, three RMBS, two CMBS and two CLOs printed .......

    News 18 June 2012

  • Par building benefits outlined

    CLO strategists at RBS have introduced a 'change in par' calculation, which measures the change in the par value of CLO assets - including cash - since inception. They believe it offers more of a like-for-like comparison than overcollateralisation tests.

    The 'change in par' calculation aims to address the natural reduction in the collateral pool due to liability amortisation by .......

    News 15 June 2012

  • PCS Secretariat head named

    Ian Bell has been named as the head of the PCS Secretariat, the PCS division responsible for day-to-day administrative and managerial operations (see SCI 12 June). Bell was most recently head of European structured finance at S&P. He has also served as general counsel at S&P and was previously capital markets partner at Clifford Chance.

    .......

    Job Swaps 15 June 2012

  • Firm expands EM sales, trading desks

    Cantor Fitzgerald has expanded its emerging markets fixed income sales and trading business with a raft of appointments. The trading team is boosted by Marc Appel, Stephen Shaw and Ning Lin, while Peter Schept, Catalina Borrero, Raul Castells and Maurice Batista join on the sales side. They each become md at the firm.

    Appel was previously at HSBC Bank USA .......

    Job Swaps 15 June 2012

  • Weak credit demand forecast for Spain

    House prices in Spain have dropped by a nominal 22% since 1Q08. But fundamentals point to a further 25% decline, S&P says.

    "House prices in Spain are a key variable in the performance of the country's economy. The housing boom built up unsustainable imbalances, such as an oversupply of dwellings, which will need to fully correct before a sustainable recovery .......

    News Round-up 15 June 2012

  • Dutch house prices to fall further

    Fitch expects Dutch house prices to fall by around 7% further due to worsening macroeconomic factors. This would take house prices to about 18% below their 2008 peak levels and on par with prices in 2004.

    The agency has marginally increased its peak-to-trough house-price decline from 15% because of the continuing rise in unemployment in the country. Uncertainty surrounding the .......

    News Round-up 15 June 2012

  • Larken B-note hope

    The US$172m Larken Portfolio loan, securitised in LBCMT 2007-C3, has been modified. The loan transitioned to special servicing in May 2009, after NCF DSCRs slipped below 1x and occupancy declined to 86%.

    The default was not entirely unexpected, according to CMBS analysts at Barclays Capital. While underwritten occupancy had been 100%, about 12% of the space had been occupied by .......

    News 15 June 2012

  • ResCap moves to settle put-backs

    Residential Capital has moved for permission to settle put-back claims held by approximately 392 RMBS trusts, Lowenstein Sandler notes in a recent client alert. Under the proposed settlement, the securitisation trusts would drop potential breach of representation and warranty claims - which are worth an estimated US$221bn - and in return would receive a US$8.7bn bankruptcy claim against debtors Residential .......

    News Round-up 15 June 2012

  • BoE launches extended repo facility

    The Bank of England is to commence operations under the extended collateral term repo (ECTR) facility, which was introduced in December 2011. Activation of the facility is intended to mitigate prospective risks to financial stability arising from a market-wide shortage of sterling liquidity by lending to the banking system against a range of collateral, including securitisations and covered bonds.

    The .......

    News Round-up 15 June 2012

  • Maiden Lane loans repaid

    The New York Fed says that its loans to the Maiden Lane and Maiden Lane III vehicles have been fully repaid with interest. The original amounts of these loans were US$28.82bn and US$24.3bn respectively. Maiden Lane II repaid all of its obligations earlier this year (SCI 29 February).

    The successful repayment of the Fed's loans to ML and ML III .......

    News Round-up 15 June 2012

  • Diversification benefits

    John Wells, chairman at Leadenhall Capital Partners, answers SCI's questions

    Q: How and when did Leadenhall Capital Partners become involved in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market?
    A:     Leadenhall Capital Partners was established in May 2008, when Luca Albertini and I formed an investment management partnership with Amlin - the first such venture to be backed by a Lloyd's insurer. We were both previously involved with insurance-linked .......

    The Structured Credit Interview 14 June 2012

  • iBoxx TRS offered

    Markit has made a number of global iBoxx corporate indices available for trading in a standardised total return swap format. The aim is to enable investors to gain or hedge exposure to the corporate bond markets easily and efficiently through a fungible and transparent trading solution, the firm says.

    The contracts will initially be available for the Markit iBoxx EUR .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • Altius CDOs sold

    Bank of America Merrill Lynch has emerged as the winning bidder for the US$1.1bn of Altius I Funding and US$852.46m of Altius II Funding CDO collateral auctioned yesterday from the New York Fed's Maiden Lane III holdings (SCI 6 June). Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and RBS were the other bidders.

    .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • Bellis moves to the buy-side

    3i Debt Management has appointed Andrew Bellis as md and partner, reporting to Jeremy Ghose, managing partner and ceo of the firm. In his new role, Bellis will be responsible for 3i DM's strategic growth globally, reinforcing its ambition to grow in core and emerging markets and to play a leading role in consolidating attractive opportunities in Europe and North .......

    Job Swaps 14 June 2012

  • Card charge-offs in unexpected rise

    Fitch's US credit card charge-off index has registered an increase for the first time this year (see also SCI 22 May). It rose by 27bp in April to 5.44%, but the agency still believes the outlook for the sector remains positive.

    Fitch attributes the rise to day count mechanics at Citibank and says that, absent that anomaly, charge-offs would have .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • Euro auto ABS back to basics

    Signs of a move towards fixed-rate in European auto ABS issuance are encouraging, says Fitch. The agency welcomes the return to structural simplicity, but is uncertain about how investors will respond.

    Fixed-rate notes do not require the hedging of interest rate risk, removing one source of counterparty risk. As well as simplifying transaction structures, the agency believes this is a .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • US CRE prices slightly down

    US CRE prices were down by 0.6% in April, according to the re-launched Moody's/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI). Moody's says that price recovery has stalled since last autumn.

    Apartment prices were down by 1.2% in April, after rising by 37.4% from their January 2010 trough. The CPPI shows that apartments in major markets started their recovery over two years .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • Fannie, Freddie alignment encouraged

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must align their operations as much as possible, SIFMA says. It has set out a strategic plan urging the FHFA to view the GSEs together, rather than as separate silos.

    The association believes that market performance indicates a crucial gap in the actual and perceived performance and liquidity of the MBS issued by the GSEs. .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • SF data challenges surveyed

    Principia Partners has released the findings of its ABS, MBS and CDO Market Pricing Survey. The results reveal the range of methodologies and services investors use to obtain market pricing for structured finance and structured credit securities. However, while there are multiple data sources for investors, many challenges remain when managing the growing universe of information across their structured finance .......

    News Round-up 14 June 2012

  • Vendor scoops new evaluator

    Domenico Picone has joined Interactive Data as a senior evaluator in its structured credit products valuation team. He reports into Paul Williams, senior manager at the firm. Picone was previously head of structured credit analytics at Commerzbank's portfolio restructuring unit and head of structured credit research at Dresdner Kleinwort.

    .......

    Job Swaps 13 June 2012
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