Complete news archive

  • RFC issued on mortgage data

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking public comment on new data and information that it has received as part of the Dodd-Frank Act's requirement for lenders to assess consumers' ability to repay mortgage loans before extending them credit.

    The CFPB has received data from the FHFA tracking the performance of loans purchased or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • Balloon risk concerns remain

    Fitch warns that balloon risk remains the key risk for the three largest German multifamily (MFH) CMBS transactions, despite the strong market activity over the past year.

    "There has been considerable refinancing activity in the German multifamily sector over the past year," says Tuuli Tikka, associate director in Fitch's European structured finance team. "A number of large sales transactions have .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • Intermediary recommendations released

    IOSCO has published a report entitled 'International Standards for Derivatives Market Intermediary Regulation', which recommends high-level international standards for the regulation of market participants that are in the business of dealing, making a market or intermediating transactions in OTC derivatives.

    The report follows the commitment by G20 leaders in 2009 to reform the OTC derivatives market in response to the .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • Gross credit exposure increases

    The notional amount of OTC derivatives fell by 8% in the second half of 2011, while a rise in price volatility drove up the market value by 40%, according to the BIS Quarterly Review for June 2012. Gross credit exposures rose 32%.

    After accounting for netting and posted collateral and adjusting for the double-counting of collateral in industry data, the .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • CMBS criteria change mooted

    S&P has issued two request for comment (RFC) articles regarding proposed changes to the criteria it uses to rate CMBS. The RFCs cover the agency's methodology for deriving credit enhancement levels and its global property evaluation criteria.

    The proposed criteria are designed to improve and simplify S&P's approach to rating CMBS, as well as harmonise its approach for evaluating commercial .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • Loss severities edge up

    US CMBS loan resolutions and loss severities continue to rebound from relatively low levels in the first quarter of the year, according to Trepp. Loss severities last month hit 43.87%, up by 1.19% from April's reading.

    At US$1.64bn, liquidations were about 23% higher than the 12-month moving average of US$1.33bn per month. Liquidations were up by 15% month-over-month in May .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • Latin American CDS index launching

    Markit will launch the first CDS index referencing Latin American corporate debt this summer. The Markit CDX LatAm Corporate Index will enable investors to gain or hedge exposure to Latin American corporate bonds or CDS.

    The index will reference corporate issuers from multiple industry sectors in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Inclusion in the index is based on .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • ML3 sales continue

    The New York Fed has put US$7bn of assets from seven CDOs on the block as part of the next round of Maiden Lane III sales.

    On 13 June, US$1.1bn of Altius I Funding and US$852.46m of Altius II Funding is to be auctioned. Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and RBS are bidding .......

    News Round-up 6 June 2012

  • FINRA issues fine for fraudulent CMOs

    FINRA has fined Brookstone Securities US$1m for fraudulent CMO sales to unsophisticated, elderly and retired investors. Brookstone ceo Antony Turbeville and broker Christopher Kline have also been fined, with total restitution to customers of US$1.6m.

    FINRA found that Turbeville and Kline intentionally made fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions to elderly and unsophisticated customers regarding the level of risk associated with CMOs .......

    Job Swaps 6 June 2012

  • Industry vet to build investment platform

    Mark Howard-Johnson has joined BlackRock to lead the development of the firm's new investment platform. He becomes global head of real estate securities management and his first priority will be to build out the team, with half a dozen more hires expected this year.

    The new global real estate securities team will work closely with BlackRock's existing real estate research .......

    Job Swaps 6 June 2012

  • SME CLO criteria tweaked

    Fitch has updated its global rating criteria for SME CLOs. As part of the update, the agency has increased its SME average annual default rate expectations (or country benchmarks) for Italy, France, Netherlands and Portugal in line with updated originator data since its last criteria was updated in 2011. Additionally, the agency has established a country benchmark for Belgium.

    The .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2012

  • CMBS loan events updated

    28 new loan events have been added to the SCI CMBS loan events database. These include:

    29/05/2012
    Deal: TITN 2006-3
    Property: AS Watson
    Balance: €23.64m
    Event: special servicer entered into restructuring agreement to assist in sale of property (offers to be received by 31 July); standstill granted, to be terminated by 31 Dec or if conditions in the restructuring agreement are met
    Description: sales .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2012

  • Spanish SME CLOs under pressure

    Fitch notes in its latest SME CLO Compare report that the performance of Spanish SME CLOs has continued to deteriorate. The 90+ delinquency index has increased to 3.7% as of May 2012, which is above the previous peak of 3% in 2009.

    Increased credit enhancement due to deleveraging mitigates the declining performance in many transactions. Nevertheless, a further escalation of .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2012

  • ABS CDO auction due

    Dock Street Capital Management has been retained as liquidation agent for Kleros Preferred Funding IV. The collateral will sold to the highest qualified bidder in two public sales taking place on 14 June.

    .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2012

  • Counterparty criteria revised

    S&P has published its updated methodology and assumptions for assessing counterparty and supporting obligations. The criteria adopt the proposed changes outlined in the agency's request for comment, published last November (SCI 21 November 2011).

    The criteria also introduce a number of other revisions to key aspects of the framework for derivatives to further support the key premise of the counterparty .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2012

  • Law firm opens African office

    Baker & McKenzie has opened a new office in Johannesburg. The firm's South African office will be staffed by partners, lawyers and staff from Dewey & LeBoeuf.

    The team will be led by four partners, including leveraged finance and DCM specialist Wildu du Plessis and regulatory and DCM specialist Chris Moraitis. The office will focus on securitisation, banking and capital .......

    Job Swaps 1 June 2012

  • First-quarter loss severity dips

    The historical weighted average loss severity for all conduit loans backing US CMBS that were liquidated at a loss was 40.5% in 1Q12, down from 41% in the prior quarter, Moody's reports. Excluding loans with de minimis losses, the historical weighted average loss severity was 52.2% in the first quarter, down from 52.6% the previous quarter.

    From 1 April 2011 .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2012

  • CLO management contracts acquired

    3i Debt Management is acquiring seven CLO management contracts from Invesco. The seven CLOs are primarily invested in sub-investment grade debt issued by European companies.

    The contracts add €2bn to 3iDM's AUM as the firm continues to grow its debt management business. 3iDM says it is also continuing to search for a US platform which matches the firm's strategy as it looks .......

    Job Swaps 31 May 2012

  • Impact of eurozone exit explored

    Fitch has published a special report exploring the likely events surrounding a hypothetical eurozone country exit, including redenomination of its currency. The agency believes a full break-up and demise of the euro remains highly unlikely, but the risk of a Greek exit is material and rising, it says.

    Ratings of entities from the hypothetical exiting country would reflect the severe .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2012

  • LTV counts in Euro CMBS refis

    Of the loans securitised in Moody's-rated European CMBS that matured in 1Q12, 79% were not repaid by their scheduled maturity date. This compares with 35% for the same period in 2009, reflecting the current weak state of the lending market.

    "The main driver underpinning whether or not maturing loans are refinanced is the LTV ratio," says Oliver Moldenhauer, a Moody's .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2012

  • Publisher's CDS settled

    The final price of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co CDS was determined to be 55.5. Twelve dealers submitted initial markets, physical settlement requests and limit orders to the auction, held yesterday (30 May) to settle trades across the market referencing the entity.

    .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2012
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