Complete news archive

  • Ambac rehab hearings scheduled

    A hearing in the Rehabilitation Court relating to Ambac Assurance's motion concerning a settlement with the US Internal Revenue Service over the tax treatment of CDS contracts (SCI 28 February) is scheduled for 13 June. Another hearing in the Rehabilitation Court has been scheduled for 4 June, which could see the monoline begin making interim policy claim payments to segregated .......

    News Round-up 18 May 2012

  • Clearing platform enhanced

    Calypso Technology has released Calypso V13. The latest version builds on the cross-asset processing platform and aims to help customers take advantage of opportunities created by the new OTC market structure in clearing and collateral management.

    Calypso V13 enables clearing member organisations to rapidly deploy comprehensive house and client clearing services for interest rates, credit derivatives and FX products, with .......

    News Round-up 18 May 2012

  • UK card ABS stress tested

    Fitch says UK credit card master trusts remain resilient against a hypothetical severe economic deterioration in three stress tests the agency has conducted. The resilience is driven by the level of credit enhancement and improved performance of most trusts to pre-financial crisis levels.

    The three scenarios demonstrate the immediate stress required to see multi-category downgrades of Fitch's UK credit card .......

    News Round-up 18 May 2012

  • Greek country ceiling lowered

    Fitch has downgraded Greece's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to triple-C from single-B minus and its short-term foreign currency IDR to single-C from single-B. At the same time, the agency has revised the country ceiling to single-B minus, with all Greek structured finance ratings now capped at this level.

    As a result, 32 structured finance notes that .......

    News Round-up 18 May 2012

  • Greek deposit flight warning

    iTraxx indices are near last year's highs on concerns that Greece will exit the euro. At the same time, the prospect of capital controls being implemented in the country adds jump-to-default risk to corporate credit.

    Greek banks are technically insolvent due to PSI losses and need at least the first tranche of the €50bn IMF recapitalisation plan to be disbursed, .......

    News Round-up 18 May 2012

  • CRE vet promoted

    American Realty Capital (ARC) has promoted Andrew Winer from svp and head of debt capital markets to cio of ARC Global Daily NAV Trust (ARC Global). ARC Global will invest in the US and also in Europe, where it will partner with UK-based Moor Park Capital Partners.

    Winer has extensive CRE experience. He joined ARC at the start of the .......

    Job Swaps 18 May 2012

  • PPL appoints permanent treasurer

    Mark Wilten, who has been serving as interim treasurer at PPL Corporation since April, will take on the position permanently next month. He is currently treasurer at Nissan North America and Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation.

    Wilten's previous roles include European securitisation associate director at Deutsche Bank, principal finance and asset securitisation executive director at WestLB and securitisation executive director at .......

    Job Swaps 18 May 2012

  • Glenborough modification questioned

    Deutsche Bank CRE debt analysts suggest that the recent modification of the Glenborough Portfolio loan, securitised in COMM 2007-FL14, may be "one of the more questionable modifications to date". They indicate that the modification affords the borrower an explicit financing advantage at the bondholders' expense.

    The major terms of the modification include: a two-year maturity extension and one-year extension option, .......

    News 17 May 2012

  • Chairman, successor for new IOSCO board

    The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has appointed Masamichi Kono as chairman of its new board. He will hold the post until March 2013 before being replaced by Greg Medcraft.

    Kono is vice commissioner for internal affairs at Japan's Financial Services Agency and has been chairman of IOSCO's technical committee since 2011. The technical committee, executive committee and emerging .......

    Job Swaps 17 May 2012

  • Active CLO market seeks stability

    The European CLO market is alive with BWICs, but buyers and sellers are struggling to meet in the middle. While mezzanine bonds - in particular - appear attractive, ongoing eurozone concerns are weighing heavily on participants' minds.

    "This week there has been a bunch of BWICs and the market has been really busy. It has mainly been mezz stuff that .......

    Market Reports 17 May 2012

  • GRAND restructuring imminent?

    Deutsche Annington appears to be making progress in respect of its restructuring proposal for the GRAND CMBS, with an announcement expected by the end of 3Q12. It is now almost a year since discussions with noteholders commenced (SCI 30 June 2011).

    Deutsche Bank securitisation analysts suggest that increased media chatter is indicative that an announcement on the terms of a .......

    News 17 May 2012

  • OTC pricing platform enhanced

    Numerix has released Numerix LiquidAsset 2.0, which it describes as a rapidly deployable solution to price the most common set of liquid OTC derivatives. Built on Numerix CrossAsset, LiquidAsset is available on the desktop through Microsoft Excel or can be integrated into proprietary or third-party systems with the Numerix LiquidAsset SDK.

    By incorporating derivative models into simple pricing and utility .......

    News Round-up 17 May 2012

  • MBIA probe mooted

    The Senate Insurance and Investigations & Government Operations Committees are considering conducting an inquiry and holding hearings related to MBIA Insurance Corp's 2009 restructuring that was approved by the former New York State Insurance Department. The move is in connection with litigation alleging that MBIA withheld material information from the State Insurance Department when the monoline sought the Department's approval .......

    News Round-up 17 May 2012

  • Oak Hill boosts client coverage

    Declan Tiernan has joined Oak Hill Advisors as client coverage md. He is based in London and will be primarily responsible for managing investor relationships in Europe and the Middle East.

    Tiernan joins from UBS, where he was head of alternative fund distribution. He has previously held positions at Deutsche Bank and HSBC, where he was responsible for marketing structured .......

    Job Swaps 17 May 2012

  • High severities likely for some Irish RMBS

    Moody's anticipates loan loss severities of up to 70% for some Irish RMBS. The agency notes that the steep decline in Irish house prices in recent years has dramatically increased LTV levels of Irish mortgages, pushing the majority of borrowers "alarmingly deep" into negative equity.

    While loan loss severity estimates for Irish RMBS differ considerably from transaction to transaction, losses .......

    News Round-up 16 May 2012

  • CRE debt firm formed

    The investment team behind the European Real Estate Debt Fund and Duet Real Estate Finance - led by Dale Lattanzio, Cyrus Korat and Rob Clayton - has formed DRC Capital, an independent investment adviser and asset manager dedicated to European real estate debt. The firm's remit is to provide institutional investment products and debt capital in the sector.

    .......

    Job Swaps 16 May 2012

  • CMBS note auctions due

    Auction.com has released details of two large note and REO sales scheduled for this month. MBS analysts at Barclays Capital estimate that the auctions account for nearly US$375m of CMBS loans out for bid.

    The largest of these loans is the US$41m Baldwin Complex, securitised in CMAT 1999-C1. The loan has been in foreclosure since June 2011 and was last .......

    News Round-up 16 May 2012

  • Strong take-up for Sabadell tender

    Banco Sabadell has announced the results of its 41-bond tender offer. Investors appear to have participated strongly, driven largely by eurozone concerns.

    The tender consisted of 21 RMBS, six ABS and 14 CLOs across both Banco Sabadell's own transactions and also from Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo transactions. The bank indicated it would consider purchasing up to €200m of its .......

    News Round-up 16 May 2012

  • Principal reduction impact analysed

    Fitch reports that principal reductions are unlikely to change long-term ratings for US RMBS.

    The agency notes that most ratings for transactions with the largest potential for reductions are already distressed. Further, the settlement target of at least US$10bn in principal reductions represents just 10% of underwater principal in non-agency RMBS. Finally, servicers are likely to look to their own .......

    News Round-up 16 May 2012

  • Credit linkage approach explained

    Moody's has commented on its approach to evaluating the impact of global and European bank credit deterioration on structured finance (SF) securities. The move follows the announcement on 15 February that it had placed on review for downgrade the ratings of 114 European banking groups and additional non-European firms with large capital market franchises.

    A deterioration in the credit quality .......

    News Round-up 16 May 2012

  • CDS gap out on 'unrest'

    Unrest among North American banks and European sovereigns have driven global credit default swap (CDS) spreads nearly 5% wider, according to Fitch Solutions.

    JPMorgan's US$2bn trading loss, unsurprisingly, led to spreads on the bank widening by 20% at the end of last week and a further 7% yesterday (14 May). More notable is the ripple effect it seems to be .......

    News Round-up 15 May 2012
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