Complete news archive

  • LTV linked to Spanish RMBS defaults

    Moody's highlights in a new special report that Spanish mortgage loans most likely to default are those with high LTV ratios, securitised in arrears of up to 30 days, made to foreign residents or originated via a broker. LTVs are shown to be the main driver of default frequency, with a dramatic increase in default probability for mortgages with LTVs .......

    News Round-up 12 January 2012

  • ZING unwind approved

    Anchorage Capital's chapter 11 plan for the liquidation of the Zais Investment Grade VII CDO (SCI passim) has been approved, becoming the first-ever involuntary prepackaged case brought under the US bankruptcy code. It is also the first and only use of chapter 11 to unwind a CDO.

    "The Zais case proved that distressed CDOs, previously thought by some to be .......

    News Round-up 12 January 2012

  • Apollo refinances TALF debt

    Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has utilised additional capacity under its master repurchase agreement with Wells Fargo Bank to refinance all of its TALF debt outstanding.

    Prior to the refinancing, Apollo had TALF borrowings totalling US$250.3m with a weighted average cost of funds of 2.8%. Those borrowings were secured by triple-A rated CMBS with a face amount of US$298.6m.

    By .......

    News Round-up 12 January 2012

  • HFF appoints debt placement director

    Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) has added a director to the debt placement group in its New Jersey office. Tom Graziano was most recently vp at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York.

    In his new role, Graziano will focus on debt, structured finance and joint venture equity transactions for office, retail, multi-housing and industrial properties throughout the northeastern US. Before .......

    Job Swaps 11 January 2012

  • Clearing committee announced

    ISDA has announced the membership and charter of its Industry Clearing Committee (ICC). The ICC, which consists of a broad cross-section of OTC derivatives industry market participants, was formed in June to meet current and emerging industry needs in respect of clearing.

    Specifically, the ICC will assist in coordinating industry efforts to reach optimal levels of central counterparty clearing and .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • Law firm adds SF specialist

    Berwin Leighton Paisner has added a structured finance specialist to its banking and capital markets group. Prashanth Satyadeva joins from Clifford Chance, where he was a securitisation partner.

    Satyadeva advises banks, funds, corporates and others on securitisations and asset-backed finance structures across several sectors. He will report to Paul Severs, also formerly of Clifford Chance.

    .......

    Job Swaps 11 January 2012

  • Offshore firm heads to Luxembourg

    Ogier intends to open a boutique law firm in Luxembourg and set up a fiduciary business in the country later this year, focusing on corporate and fund administration business. It would make Ogier the first offshore firm to have an onshore legal presence in Luxembourg.

    The Luxembourg legal practice will be led by François Pfister. He is a senior partner .......

    Job Swaps 11 January 2012

  • Investment manager adds business development md

    Highland Capital Management has appointed a business development md in its New York office. Brian Rice joins from Investcorp International and reports to head of business development Clay Shumway.

    Rice is primarily responsible for business development in the US and Europe, including developing relationships with institutional investors, consultants and wealth management platforms. Prior to serving as partner at Investcorp he .......

    Job Swaps 11 January 2012

  • GSE vet joins law firm

    Washington DC-based law firm Venable has hired Daniel Danello as of counsel. Danello has previously worked for Fannie Mae and joins from Ropes & Gray.

    Danello specialises in derivatives, repos, regulatory and compliance matters. He spent 10 years as Fannie Mae's associate general counsel to the treasurer on governance and compliance matters and transactions in the equity, debt and derivatives .......

    Job Swaps 11 January 2012

  • Should triple-A be the only way for structured finance?

    Andrew South, senior director and head of European structure...

    Investors in structured finance securities remain highly focused on triple-A ratings - and, consequently, so do issuers. But with banking system and sovereign risks recently increasing, triple-A ratings are becoming more difficult to achieve. In our view, market participants also tend to pay too little attention to what a triple-A rating for a given security actually means, based on the .......

    Talking Point 11 January 2012

  • K-Deal analytics tool prepped

    Freddie Mac is preparing a free database tool for investors and analysts to monitor the performance and credit quality of its multifamily K-Deal MBS. The Multifamily Securities Investor Access tool is designed to increase transparency and save investors time by providing easy access to all post-securitisation data from investor reporting packages for the securities underlying the related series of K .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • RFC issued on CLO criteria

    DBRS is requesting comments on proposed changes to the methodology it uses to rate and monitor CLOs and CDOs of large corporate credits. The updated methodology will cover US, European and Asian transactions.

    The proposed revised methodology includes three components: a rating methodology for CLOs and CDOs of large corporate credits; cashflow assumptions for corporate credit securitisations; and a Canadian .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • Euro SF recovery predicted next year

    A sustainable recovery in European structured finance issuance is unlikely before 2013, due to a combination of factors, Fitch suggests. The agency forecasts public and retained European structured finance issuance for 2012 to be €300bn-€350bn, broadly in line with the €317bn seen in 2011 and €337bn in 2010.

    The big unknown is what proportion of this will be placed with .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • Servicer loss mitigation assessment debuts

    S&P's global surveillance analytics team has developed a method for assessing US mortgage servicers' default management processes. The aim is for investors to use the method to assess how effective servicers' strategies are in limiting losses.

    The new method incorporates two key components: how quickly individual servicers have been able to liquidate non-performing loans; and the success of their loan .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • OTC regulatory impact examined

    GreySpark Partners has released a report examining the expected impact of OTC derivatives clearing from the buy-side, sell-side and third-party vendor perspectives. The report looks at the regulatory picture in Europe and the US, focusing on the MiFID review, European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Basel 3 and the Dodd-Frank Act.

    The report identifies increased transparency, reduced systemic risk, changes to .......

    News Round-up 11 January 2012

  • Life securitisation shows potential

    S&P has published extracts of a roundtable discussion on longevity securitisations it recently hosted.

    The rating agency observes: "With recent transactions in the UK, longevity securitisations are attracting more attention in the US. Differing market dynamics in the UK and US are also revealing the direction and focus their longevity securitisation markets will take: the UK market transactions generally focus .......

    News 10 January 2012

  • Looking ahead for cat bonds

    S&P has published extracts of a roundtable discussion on the catastrophe bond market it recently hosted. In a generally forward looking and positive discussion the participants concurred on a number of issues not least that despite the economic uncertainty surrounding the eurozone, unsettled US fiscal policy and volatile stock and bond markets there will be a robust pipeline of new .......

    News 10 January 2012

  • December pay-offs fall sharply

    The percentage of CMBS loans paying off at their maturity date fell sharply in December, posting the lowest reading since May 2011, according to the latest Trepp pay-off report.

    In December, 37.5% of loans reaching their balloon date paid off. This was almost 10 points below November's 47.1% reading.

    During 2010, the average monthly reading had been 34%. In 2011, .......

    News Round-up 10 January 2012

  • Intra-day commentary service launched

    Fitch has launched 'Fitch Wire', a new service designed to provide insightful credit commentary on market events as they happen.

    "Our rating and research opinions typically reflect a longer time horizon and Fitch Wire complements that analysis with more immediate commentary on issues that matter most to investors," says Fitch president Paul Taylor.

    Jeremy Carter, previously md and head of .......

    News Round-up 10 January 2012

  • Rising concern over CLO supply

    JPMorgan's latest global CDO client survey shows that lack of CLO primary supply has significantly increased as a concern from the July 2011 survey, but is tied with the two other top concerns - regulatory reform and CLO spread volatility. Loan downgrades and defaults is in fifth place, suggesting less concern with fundamental deterioration than had been expected. Concern over .......

    News Round-up 10 January 2012

  • Sovereign credit risk report released

    CMA has released its 4Q11 global sovereign credit risk report, in which it names the top-ten most and least risky sovereigns, as well as the best and worst performing sovereign CDS. The firm reports that nearly all global CDS prices widened during November's volatile period as the eurozone debt crisis continued, with the region widening by 9% overall, indicating the .......

    News Round-up 10 January 2012
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