Complete news archive

  • RFC issued on Volcker Rule

    The FDIC has requested public comment on the proposed Volcker Rule regulation (SCI 7 October), pertaining to section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

    The regulation generally prohibits two banking entity activities: engaging in short-term proprietary trading of any security for a banking entity's own account; and owning, sponsoring or having certain relationships with a hedge fund or private equity fund. .......

    News Round-up 12 October 2011

  • Morningstar RMBS ratings launch nears

    Morningstar is set to unveil its RMBS ratings and surveillance analytics service next week. The new offering is designed to improve market transparency, ratings stability and timeliness of surveillance reviews.

    "Before the recent credit crisis, the traditional rating agencies considered a transaction to be performing normally unless it broke an 'exception' threshold, in which case it would then be subject .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2011

  • Improved performance continues for cards

    US credit card ABS collateral performance improved yet again last month, according to Fitch's latest credit card index results.

    "Credit quality has improved significantly for credit cards and we're seeing the results of that continue to play out in ABS performance," says Fitch md Michael Dean. "That said, the pace of improvement is showing signs of levelling off and we .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2011

  • Euro CLO overlap examined

    A renewed pick-up in defaults is likely to put downward pressure on European CLO ratings, according to S&P. This comes as the agency releases its study on the degree of overlap between different portfolios and concentration risk within them, based on a sample of 211 CLO portfolios on which it conducts regular surveillance.

    "We have observed a significant overlap between .......

    News Round-up 11 October 2011

  • GRAND restructuring delayed

    The projected timetable regarding a restructuring of the GRAND CMBS is to be delayed slightly, leading to suggestions that it was over-optimistic to begin with. Deutsche Annington (DAIG) met with the ad-hoc group of noteholders on an unrestricted basis on 7 October to discuss a revised timetable and process for agreeing the commercial terms of a solvent scheme of arrangement.

    News Round-up 11 October 2011

  • Tall order

    Banks ready CVA infrastructure, strategies ahead of Basel 3

    The advent of Basel 3 significantly changes the way in which financial institutions address counterparty credit risk (CCR) and credit value adjustment (CVA). While a small number of banks are geared up for the regulatory changes and are actively managing CVA, the complexity and cost of implementing the necessary infrastructure remains a daunting task for the majority. (The full SCI .......

    News Analysis 11 October 2011

  • Advisory staffs up

    Kinetic Partners has appointed three new professionals to its London office. Patrick Crumplin, Martin Duff and Emily Benson join the firm's regulatory consulting and compliance team.

    Crumplin has been named a director, specialising in regulatory and other financial investigations and litigation support. He has over 13 years of forensic accounting, litigation support and regulatory investigations experience across a range of .......

    Job Swaps 11 October 2011

  • SCI Start the Week - 10 October

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

    Pipeline
    European transactions dominated the pipeline by the end of last week. It comprised two sizeable RMBS - £9bn Silverstone Master Issuer series 2011-1 and €3.5bn Home Loan Invest 2011 - and the Penarth Master Issuer 2011-2 credit card deal. A European windstorm cat bond, the €100m Calypso Capital, and the A$350m SMART Trust series 2011-3 rounded the pipeline out.

    Pricings
    Three .......

    News 10 October 2011

  • Euro CLOs face 'increasing pressure'

    Fitch says that European leveraged loan CLOs are likely to come under increasing pressure in 4Q11.

    The agency's newly-published October 2011 European Leveraged Loan CLO Tracker reveals that the triple-C bucket has increased to 8.7% from 7.4% in January 2011 and two new defaults were recorded in 3Q11. At the same time, the average triple-A OC test cushion - excluding .......

    News Round-up 10 October 2011

  • Credit manager plots European growth

    Stone Tower Capital has formed Stone Tower Europe, headquartered in Dublin, to enable the firm to expand its European operations and serve its growing investor base. Tim Richards has been appointed md to oversee the firm's European expansion, along with Alan Kelly as a director.

    Richards joins from LBBW Asset Management Ireland, where he held the role of ceo from .......

    Job Swaps 10 October 2011

  • Servicer buys advisory firm

    Helios AMC, a special servicer sponsored by Ranieri Partners, has acquired global CRE advisory The Situs Companies. The combined company will operate as The Situs Companies.

    Helios ceo Keith Johnson will serve as ceo of the combined platform. The Situs principals will assume leadership positions, with co-founder Ralph Howard serving as the president of Europe, Steve Powel serving as president .......

    Job Swaps 7 October 2011

  • RTC vet strengthens advisory practice

    Timothy Kruse has joined Milestone Advisors' advisory practice as an md based in the firm's Washington, DC headquarters. His primary focus will be on providing advisory services and asset sales advice to the GSEs, US regulatory agencies and other governmental entities, as well as the banking and mortgage finance sectors.

    Kruse previously held a number of high-level jobs at the .......

    Job Swaps 7 October 2011

  • Hotel resolutions push delinquencies down

    The continued turnaround of hotels helped precipitate another decline for US CMBS delinquencies, according to the latest Loan Delinquency Index results from Fitch.

    Approximately US$604m in resolved hotel-backed loans resulted in a slight drop of 5bp for CMBS late-pays, bringing the overall rate to 8.6% from 8.65%. Aside from hotel sector gains, September proved to be a quiet month for .......

    News Round-up 7 October 2011

  • Volcker Rule on the agenda

    The FDIC is to hold a public meeting on 11 October to discuss the implementation of the Volcker Rule under the Dodd-Frank Act. The rule restricts the proprietary trading and private investment fund activities of US banks and bank affiliates, as well as foreign banks with banking operations in the US.

    The rule contains limited exceptions for: transactions involving US .......

    News Round-up 7 October 2011

  • CLO manifest error corrected

    An investor notice was released yesterday advising of a manifest error in the documentation for the recently priced Mesena CLO 2011-1 (see SCI CDO database). The error is contained in the sections entitled 'Article 122a of the Capital Requirements Directive' and 'Description of the Portfolio Servicing Agreement' of the prospectus, dated 27 September.

    These sections state .......

    News Round-up 7 October 2011

  • Italian government-linked deals hit

    Moody's has downgraded the ratings of the notes issued by six Italian ABS transactions, following the downgrade of the Region of Lazio, the Region of Abruzzo, the Region of Campania and the Autonomous Region of Sicily. It has also downgraded the ratings of four transactions that are directly linked to the Italian government: two repacks, one balance sheet CDO and .......

    News Round-up 7 October 2011

  • Financing platform enhanced

    H.I.G. Capital has acquired certain assets of WhiteHorse Capital, a Dallas-based CLO manager with assets under management of over US$1.7bn, and formed H.I.G. WhiteHorse to provide flexible financing solutions to profitable and performing small and middle market companies.

    With more than US$1bn of capital available to deploy into businesses in the US and Europe, H.I.G. WhiteHorse has a broad mandate .......

    Job Swaps 7 October 2011

  • CLO manager acquired

    GSO Capital Partners has acquired Harbourmaster Capital, which manages and advises on approximately €8bn of assets, including a number of CLOs. The Harbourmaster Capital Dublin-based team will continue to support the Harbourmaster funds and will form a combined platform with GSO's existing European leveraged loan business to develop new European-focused funds for their global investor base. The combined European leveraged .......

    Job Swaps 6 October 2011

  • CMBS loan liquidations jump

    The balance of US CMBS conduit loans liquidated in September jumped to US$1.26bn - an increase of almost 25% from the low August reading, according to Trepp. At US$1.26bn, the volume is very close to the 12-month rolling average for the volume of loans liquidated each month, whereas the average loss severity was down more than 4% but still remains .......

    News Round-up 6 October 2011

  • Tip of the iceberg

    Special servicers to benefit from increased CRE disposals

    Following the successful sale in August of the Anglo Irish portfolio, several more non-core commercial real estate asset dispositions could be on the way. Special servicers will need a comprehensive skill-set to deal with the volume of troubled assets due to be sold, but could benefit significantly from them.

    With a principal balance of approximately US$9.5bn and comprising loans on .......

    News Analysis 6 October 2011

  • Buy-side clearing challenges examined

    A new report from Celent confirms that the move from bilateral to counterparty clearing of OTC derivatives will require significant resources, especially for buy-side participants.

    The buy-side has historically not had much involvement with central clearing. Now, it will have to ensure that relationships are in place with an appropriate number of executing and clearing brokers, along with connectivity to .......

    News Round-up 6 October 2011
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