Complete news archive

  • ABS CDO reassigned

    Fixed Income Discount Advisory Company (FIDAC) is set to assign its collateral management responsibilities for HARP High Grade CDO I to Cutwater Investor Services Corp. The new management agreement contains substantially the same terms as the existing management agreement, according to Moody's.

    The agency notes that the execution of an amended and restated collateral management agreement will not result in .......

    Job Swaps 22 July 2011

  • Asset manager adds in research

    Deer Park Road Corp has hired Hao Li as research analyst to strengthen its portfolio management team as the firm's assets continue to grow. Li will focus on risk management and analytics, supporting portfolio managers Michael Craig-Scheckman and Scott Burg.

    Prior to joining Deer Park, Li was at JPMorgan, where he worked on a US$1bn non-agency MBS portfolio and a .......

    Job Swaps 22 July 2011

  • Real estate practice bolstered

    Jodi Schwimmer has joined Dechert's finance and real estate practice as counsel in New York. She was most recently an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

    Schwimmer focuses her practice on CMBS, real estate finance and structured finance, representing clients in non-performing real estate debt obligations, structured products, the purchase and sale of commercial and multifamily mortgage loans, mezzanine debt, .......

    Job Swaps 22 July 2011

  • City Center Trust 2011-CCHP ratings queried

    Fitch has published another unsolicited assessment of a CMBS deal in marketing. As with its unsolicited assessment on DECO 2011-CSPK (SCI 3 June), the agency finds its expected ratings on City Center Trust 2011-CCHP (CCHP) to be out of step with those actually assigned to the deal.

    Fitch says that investment grade ratings assigned to the most junior class of .......

    News Round-up 22 July 2011

  • Securitisation race heats up

    At the halfway point of 2011, with close to US$140bn of qualifying deals counted, the race is heating up for top place in the SCI US league tables for bank arrangers in the structured credit and ABS markets. Demonstrating how quickly the situation can change, May's sixth-placed firm has jumped to third this month. Europe, on the other hand, remains .......

    News Round-up 22 July 2011

  • CVA functionality introduced

    Pricing Partners has introduced CVA, DVA and bilateral CVA functionality for all payoff-based trades to its Price-it library. The solution leverages Pricing Partners' generic American Monte Carlo (AMC) engine to compute CVA/DVA/Bilateral CVA for virtually any derivatives, with accurate valuation of the potential future exposure and the corresponding probabilities of a default of a counterparty.

    .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • EM existing asset criteria updated

    Fitch has updated its criteria for existing asset securitisation in emerging markets in relation to sovereign constraints. The analytical approach is unchanged, but certain clarifications and refinements have been introduced.

    The agency notes that securitisation transactions originated in emerging market economies are affected by the macroeconomic, political and legal environment of that country. The volatility of the local economy can .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • ISDA warns on CDS execution

    Marking the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, ISDA has commented on the safety of the OTC derivatives markets in light of the legislation and the efforts the industry has undertaken over the past few years in conjunction with global regulators. The Association cites increasing volumes of centrally cleared transactions, the reduction of notional outstanding via compression cycles and the .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • Secondary CRE CDO methodology released

    Moody's has published a secondary methodology for rating CRE CDOs. The rating agency says the methodology does not introduce any changes to its approach and as a result will not have any impact on its existing ratings in the sector. The methodology primarily addresses Moody's approach to CRE CDOs that include direct commercial real estate debt interests, such as whole .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • Imperial Capital hires in structured finance

    Todd Fasanella has joined Imperial Capital as an md located in its New York office. He will focus on investment banking for the financial services and real estate, lodging and leisure sectors and will also expand Imperial's capabilities by pursuing structured and project financing transactions for the firm's investment banking and institutional sales & trading clients.

    Fasanella has over 15 .......

    Job Swaps 21 July 2011

  • Fitch sanguine on CMBS 2.0

    A new report from Fitch suggests that the agency is currently comfortable with new CMBS deal structures, despite what it describes as "mounting concern that US CMBS underwriting standards are on the decline". At the same time, the agency underlines that it will take action, should standards decline too quickly.

    Fitch says it believes that there is quite a way .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • Tradeweb founder launches pricing platform

    Jim Toffey, the founder of Tradeweb, has launched Benchmark Solutions. The firm says it is the first and only provider of fully independent, streaming, real-time, market-driven prices for fixed income and derivatives markets.

    Backed by Warburg Pincus, Benchmark Solutions is focused on addressing fundamental shortcomings in price transparency and independence in the OTC fixed income and derivatives markets. "After the .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • GSC transfer confirmed

    An investor notice for the GSC European CDO I-R, II and V transactions confirms that the sale of GSC Group assets to Black Diamond Capital Management is to take place by 25 July, unless the parties agree to defer it to a later date. Completion of the sale will constitute an assignment of the rights of the collateral manager to .......

    Job Swaps 21 July 2011

  • Risk assessment tops technology challenges

    FINCAD has released the results of its second annual survey, in which 28% of sell-side and 30% of buy-side respondents reported that accurate risk assessment was their biggest challenge. Respondents in both of these segments consequently reported adjusting their risk management strategy, to include greater analysis and awareness of model risk and carrying out stress testing and scenario analysis. The .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • JSCC pricing agreement signed

    Markit is to produce daily settlement prices for Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC), required for mark-to-market pricing, margining and clearing of the Markit iTraxx Japan index. The pricing will be produced on credit indices cleared on JSCC.

    Kevin Gould, president of Markit, comments: "The introduction of a central counterparty in the Asian Pacific CDS market is a major milestone. Markit .......

    News Round-up 21 July 2011

  • Lights in the dark for Euro RMBS

    Nervousness in the European RMBS market has caused spread widening, as participants wait to see how issues in the Eurozone work out and whether they may lead to new problems for the banking sector. However, despite those concerns, UK and Dutch RMBS continue to give encouragement.

    "We have not been too busy this week," explains one European trader. "General sentiment .......

    Market Reports 21 July 2011

  • Partnership programme enhanced

    Sapient Global Markets has joined the Murex partnership programme to provide professional services to clients of both organisations. Sapient says it will draw on its experience developing and delivering business and technology services for companies operating in the financial markets. Its expertise implementing complex risk applications, combined with Murex's platform, will enhance joint clients' cross-asset class risk management capabilities.

    .......

    Job Swaps 20 July 2011

  • Market data pro hired

    BGC Partners has recruited Mark Benfield as executive md and director of BGC Market Data. Benfield, who will be based in the company's Asia-Pacific region, will have global responsibility for BGC Market Data and report to Shaun Lynn, president of BGC Partners.

    Benfield was previously regional md for ICAP Information Services in the Asia-Pacific region. He takes over from Bernie .......

    Job Swaps 20 July 2011

  • Insurance CDS index launched

    Moody's recently launched its Global Insurance CDS Index (MDYGIX), which aims to provide a window into how investors are viewing the global insurance sector. The agency says that the index will serve as an independent observation of credit trends, supplementing its regular monitoring of insurers and reinsurers.

    Overall, the ratings gap - or difference between CDS-implied ratings and Moody's ratings .......

    News Round-up 20 July 2011

  • Lengthy lull

    Recruitment slowdown to stretch beyond summer

    The year started well for the structured finance job market, but activity dropped away a few months ago and hasn't picked up since. Opinion among recruiters is split as to whether hiring will resume later this year or remain on hold until 2012, but the next quarter at least is expected to be muted.

    "It is really quite quiet. Sell-side .......

    News Analysis 20 July 2011

  • Saratoga management team enhanced

    Saratoga Investment Corp has appointed Michael Grisius as md and cio of Saratoga Investment Advisors, the management company overseeing its portfolio. The firm also intends to nominate Grisius to its board of directors.

    Grisius was previously co-chairman of the investment committee of Allied Capital, where he worked for 16 years originating and managing more than US$2bn of subordinated debt investments, .......

    Job Swaps 20 July 2011
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