Complete news archive

  • SF partner recruited

    Macfarlanes has appointed former Clifford Chance lawyer Rachel Kelly as partner. She will play a key role in the firm's ongoing strategic development in structured finance and debt capital markets.

    .......

    Job Swaps 2 June 2011

  • Maturing market

    Euro RMBS sector set for further spread tightening

    Changes made since the crisis have seen the European RMBS market become quite conservative, but there are encouraging signs that it is opening up again. At the same time, another round of spread tightening looks ever more overdue.

    The European RMBS market is not unrecognisable from its pre-crisis form, but it has seen some important changes. "Issuance is lower and .......

    News Analysis 2 June 2011

  • US CMBS delinquency rate drops

    The US CMBS delinquency rate fell slightly in May with the percentage of loans 30+ days delinquent in foreclosure or REO declining by 5bp to 9.6%, according to Trepp's latest delinquency report.

    Although small, the decline is the biggest rate drop for US CRE loans in CMBS in approximately two years - excluding October 2010 when the Extended Stay Hotels .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • New issue boost for Euro ABS

    The primary European ABS market has seen a busy start to the week, with new issuance continuing to dominate investor focus. The Brass No. 1 RMBS is the latest transaction to price.

    "Quite a few new issues have hit the market over the last week. That has been the main hub of action and it's all very good for the .......

    Market Reports 1 June 2011

  • MBIA policyholder ruling awaited

    A decision in the MBIA policyholders fraudulent conveyance case is expected in the next several weeks, following yesterday's Court of Appeals hearing in Albany (SCI passim). Robert Giuffra, lead counsel for the policyholders and a partner with Sullivan & Cromwell, told the court that approval of MBIA's controversial restructuring by the New York Insurance Department (NYID) should not deny policyholders .......

    Job Swaps 1 June 2011

  • No post-auction distributions for CDO

    The proceeds of the sale of the Ridgeway Court Funding II collateral (see SCI 4 May), together with any other funds available for payment on the distribution date, will be insufficient to pay the hedge counterparty. Consequently, the trustee on the ABS CDO has notified investors that there will be no available funds to make any payments on any other .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • Acquisition strengthens structured credit desk

    Ticonderoga Securities has completed its acquisition of Soleil Securities Corporation, resulting in a research-based securities business with 21 analysts covering 17 sectors. The combined business has an international market-making capability, a growing investment banking group and an innovative structured credit desk, the two firms say. The group will operate from headquarters in New York, with satellite offices in Boston, Minneapolis .......

    Job Swaps 1 June 2011

  • Loss expectations lowered for US autos

    The US auto loan ABS market has improved considerably over the past two years, primarily as a result of the stronger economy and a better collateral mix in some of the more recent pools, according to S&P. As a result of this improvement, the agency has lowered its loss expectations for both newly issued 2011 and outstanding 2010 transactions.

    S&P .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • Trups CDO defaults levelling off?

    Cumulative defaults and deferrals rose again for US bank Trups CDOs, though the rate of increase continues to level off compared to two years ago, according to Fitch.

    Bank Trups CDO default rates rose 0.29% to 15.6% through last month, while actual bank deferrals fell by 0.18% to 17.6%. These results led to a marginal increase in the total default .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • Second private RMBS tranche placed

    Walter Investment Management has privately placed approximately US$81m of class B RMBS notes issued by Mid-State Capital Trust 2010-1. The firm closed the class A notes in November (see SCI 16 November 2010). The deal is backed by US residential mortgage loans, building and instalment sales contracts, promissory notes, related mortgages and other security agreements.

    Walter Investment expects to receive .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • Euro CMBS repayments rise

    Fitch reports that amortisation and cash sweeps on outstanding loans have caused its European CMBS Maturity Repayment Index to increase marginally during May to 38.4% from 38.1%.

    The sole loan to mature during the month was the Algarve Portuguese loan, securitised in European Property Capital 3. The loan had previously matured in May 2010 and had been extended by one .......

    News Round-up 1 June 2011

  • Bank expands Asia development group

    BNP Paribas has appointed Sam Shi in the newly created role of sales director, Greater China, for asset owners and asset managers. Based in Hong Kong, he will lead the bank's business development activities targeted at key institutional investor clients in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    Shi was most recently a sales and relationship manager at Brown Brothers Harriman.

    .......

    Job Swaps 31 May 2011

  • Japanese CRE recovery back on track

    Japanese commercial real estate transactions have been showing signs of recovery, though this recently took a pause with the March earthquake. According to research in Moody's latest 'Structured Thinking: Asia Pacific' report, the J-CMBS market is also showing a rebound with loan defaults peaking. New transaction structures are simple with the underlying loans showing more conservative underwriting driven by tighter .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2011

  • Operation benchmarking results released

    ISDA has released the results from its 2011 year-end 'Operations Benchmarking Survey', which includes results from G14 respondents.

    The survey notes the continuing decrease in confirmations outstanding, particularly among G14 members. Credit derivatives show an average of 0.4 business days' worth of aged outstanding confirmations among G14 members, compared with one business day in last year's survey, ISDA says.

    Further, .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2011

  • US ABS remains stable

    Although housing-related sectors suffered during the recent economic downturn, ratings on US ABS have generally remained stable, S&P says. More specifically, 94.3% of triple-A rated US ABS maintained their ratings or were paid off in full during the last 12 months, the agency says.

    Despite continued high unemployment rates, upgrades continued to dominate auto loan ABS rating transitions during the .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2011

  • CLO unaffected by WARF constraint mods

    Modifications to the maximum weighted average rating factor (WARF) constraint in the 80 existing trading covenant matrices in Gateway II Euro CLO - a cash CLO - will not affect ratings on the notes, according to Moody's.

    The change in WARF constraint, which Moody's has been informed does not require the consent of any of the noteholders, is viewed as .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2011

  • Structured trade finance md appointed

    The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTMU) has appointed Erich Michel as md and head of the structured trade finance group within its investment banking division for the Americas (IBDA). He will be responsible for growing BTMU's trade finance business throughout the Americas, while working closely with the bank's regional offices. He will report to Yoshihiro Kubo, group head of the commodities .......

    Job Swaps 31 May 2011

  • Further woes for Greek SF

    Fitch has downgraded 38 tranches (35 RMBS and three ABS) of 16 Greek SF transactions (comprising 13 RMBS and three ABS). Further, all Greek tranches have been placed on rating watch negative (RWN).

    The rating actions follow the agency's downgrade of Greece's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings (IDRs) to single-B plus and placement on RWN from double-B .......

    News Round-up 31 May 2011

  • Three misconceptions about issuer-paid ratings

    CapitalFusion Partners mds Malay Bansal and John Joshi argue...

    The issuer-paid model for ratings is widely seen as one of the most significant aspects of the process that needs to be reformed. Issuers select which NRSROs will rate their deal and they pay the rating agencies rating their deals. Many blame this dynamic for causing a conflict for the agencies and enabling ratings-shopping by issuers.

    This is perhaps seen .......

    Talking Point 27 May 2011

  • CMBS delinquency rate rises again

    The US CMBS delinquency rate increased by 5bp in April - the same as the increase in March, according to S&P. The delinquency rate ended April at 9.17% and the amount of delinquent loan collateral backing rated CMBS totalled US$49.34bn.

    Two new transactions (accounting for US$2.52bn principal balance) that S&P rated in April partially diluted the overall delinquency rate by .......

    News Round-up 27 May 2011

  • CMBS originator added

    Andrew Seng has been appointed md in the Atlanta office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF), where he will primarily be responsible for originating debt and structured finance transactions throughout the southern US. He has over eight years of experience in commercial real estate finance and was previously an evp with First Fidelity Companies. Prior to that, he worked as an .......

    Job Swaps 27 May 2011
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