Complete news archive

  • Opening arguments

    Volume of RMBS litigation set to increase

    RMBS litigation is expected to gather steam this year: more new cases are set to be filed, while further decisions on preliminary motions are due. At the same time, courts will start adjudicating discovery disputes and motions for summary judgment.

    Individual plaintiffs filed several new cases at the end of last year and the beginning of this one. Law firm .......

    News Analysis 11 March 2011

  • New clearing, settlement standards proposed

    IOSCO's Technical Committee and the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) have issued for public consultation a series of new international standards for payment, clearing and settlement systems. The new principles are intended to further strengthen the global financial markets infrastructure.

    The 24 proposals set out in a new report are designed to apply to all systemically important payment .......

    News Round-up 10 March 2011

  • New bond fund minted

    Loomis, Sayles & Company has launched the Loomis Sayles Absolute Strategies Bond Fund to address investor demand for absolute return-oriented fixed income strategies in the UK and Europe. The fund allows for tactical investments in a variety of fixed income securities, including securitised assets and long/short derivative positions, aimed at preserving income while also offering a disciplined risk management process .......

    News Round-up 10 March 2011

  • Pardoning problems

    Principal forgiveness proposal raises concern

    The US government may force banks to pay a US$20bn settlement for mortgage servicing breakdowns, with the funds generated being used for principal forgiveness. Several issues still need to be ironed out - not least who would qualify for forgiveness - but the proposal has begun to gather momentum.

    Dan Castro, md at BTIG, believes there are several flaws in .......

    News Analysis 10 March 2011

  • TARP repayments gathering pace

    The US Treasury says that, with the receipt this week of a US$6.9bn repayment from AIG, taxpayers have now recovered 70% of total Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) disbursements.

    "We're optimistic that as we continue to wind down TARP, our temporary investments in private companies will ultimately result in little or no cost to taxpayers taken as a whole," comments .......

    News Round-up 10 March 2011

  • Stable outlook for Canadian CMBS

    In Moody's new 'Canadian structured finance and covered bonds: 2011 outlook and 2010 review', the rating agency says it expects Canadian CMBS performance to remain stable as it sees signs of life in the new issuance market.

    "We expect the delinquency rate for properties underlying our rated CMBS transactions not to rise significantly throughout 2011. For the US$12.2bn in outstanding .......

    News Round-up 10 March 2011

  • Euro MBS holds on

    Activity in the European MBS market has slowed this week, as participants hold on for rumoured new issuance.

    "It's all mainly positive, although the market has been a bit slower in the last week compared to the busy bid-list period before that," one MBS trader says. This week's quiet spell is attributed to a lack of investor drive, along with .......

    Market Reports 9 March 2011

  • Technology incubation fund launched

    ICAP has launched Euclid Opportunities, a new approach to financial technology incubation. Euclid will offer a seed funding and acceleration programme to early-stage companies that provide technology in the areas of post-trade risk management and data.

    Mark Beeston, ceo of ICAP portfolio risk services, comments: "The rate of regulatory reform in global financial markets is driving unprecedented demand for new .......

    Job Swaps 9 March 2011

  • PECO ramifications

    Eurosail ruling impact awaited

    Judgement has now been handed down on the Eurosail-UK 2007-3BL - a Lehman-originated RMBS - case, with serious implications for securitisations in the UK. The Court of Appeal on Monday upheld an earlier ruling that post-enforcement call options (PECOs) do not prevent issuers becoming balance sheet insolvent.

    The case arose as Eurosail's class A3 noteholders claimed the issuer was balance .......

    News Analysis 9 March 2011

  • Mortgage portfolio analytics offered

    Moody's Analytics has released its Mortgage Portfolio Analyser (MPA) service, a risk management and capital allocation tool to help retail portfolio managers analyse and manage the credit risk of their mortgage portfolios. Featuring a range of customisable models and forecasting tools, the service also gives retail credit and fixed income portfolio managers the information they need to hedge or rebalance .......

    News Round-up 9 March 2011

  • Asset manager adds real estate md

    Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) has appointed Ralph Rosenberg as md to lead its global real estate investing efforts. Rosenberg's principal responsibility will be working across KKR's global business to find real estate opportunities for the firm's pools of capital, including equity, debt and special situations investments.

    Rosenberg was previously a partner at Eton Park Capital Management, where he was .......

    Job Swaps 9 March 2011

  • Vendor strengthens Aussie presence

    Xenomorph has relocated chief technical architect and founding director Chris Budgen and senior developer Irina Taran to Melbourne and Sydney respectively. The move aims to boost the firm's presence in Australia while enhancing its technical support offering to regional clients. London-based Brian Kristensen continues as head of product development and takes over responsibility for the day-to-day running of the product .......

    Job Swaps 9 March 2011

  • OTC solutions md named

    CME Group has appointed Michel Everaert as md in its OTC solutions group. Based in London, Everaert will be responsible for overseeing OTC pre- and post-trade products, while helping to further expand the firm's CME ClearPort product line and OTC open clearing solutions. He will report to Laurent Paulhac, CME's OTC products & services md.

    Prior to joining CME, Everaert .......

    Job Swaps 9 March 2011

  • Replacement repercussions

    Barriers to entry for Euro special servicers remain high

    The replacement by Solutus Advisors as special servicer on seven European CMBS within a few weeks sparked controversy because of the perceived speed in which it was done. But the episode also highlights the many barriers to entry for European special servicers.

    Solutus replaced Hatfield Philips on five DECO transactions and Capita on two Titan Cornerstone transactions, representing an outstanding .......

    News Analysis 9 March 2011

  • Dutch RMBS criteria updated

    Fitch has updated its rating methodology for new and existing Dutch-backed RMBS. Following the update, the agency has reviewed the outstanding ratings of existing Fitch-rated Dutch prime (non-NHG) RMBS transactions and subsequently affirmed 281 tranches, upgraded one tranche and revised eight outlooks to negative.

    The main changes to the criteria include a modest decrease in the triple-A base foreclosure frequencies, .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2011

  • New partner for investment advisor

    Torchlight Investors has appointed Steven Schwartz as partner and md. In this new role, Schwartz will focus on arranging the firm's debt investments and will report to Dan Heflin, Torchlight's ceo and cio. He comes from JPMorgan, where he was co-head of the CMBS group.

     

    .......

    Job Swaps 8 March 2011

  • Ratings bottleneck

    Banks rush to maintain ECB repo-eligibility

    The ECB extended its minimum two ratings repo-eligibility requirement to all existing ABS on 1 March. Some banks appear to have rushed their preparations, however, with one in five deals failing to meet the deadline.

    Asset-backed analysts at RBS indicate that the outstanding volume of single-rated retained euro-denominated ABS stood at just over €200bn (accounting for some 237 bonds), as .......

    News Analysis 8 March 2011

  • 'Harsher' QRM definition expected

    US federal agencies are preparing new risk retention requirements and a potential definition for qualified residential mortgages (QRMs). The proposal is believed to include loans with 20% or more down payments, which ABS analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch believe falls on the harsher side relative to a 10%-20% figure mooted anecdotally.

    "We believe that more stringent definitions for .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2011

  • Dangers of naked sales ban outlined

    In an open letter addressed to European Parliament Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee Sharon Bowles and Pascal Canfin, the Committee's Rapporteur on the draft EU regulation on short selling and CDS, EDHEC-Risk Institute has warned of the dangers of prohibiting naked sales of sovereign credit default swaps.

    Besides the fact that the lack of convergence on these .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2011

  • Rule changes for CDS indices

    Markit has made changes to certain rules governing its iTraxx Europe and CDX North America family of CDS indices. The new rules come into effect ahead of the index rolls later this month.

    The rule changes introduce the formal use of CDS trade volume data from the DTCC trade information warehouse (TIW) for determining which entities will be included in .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2011

  • EU bans naked sovereign CDS

    A ban on naked sovereign CDS and a requirement that traders settle their uncovered positions by the end of each trading day were two key outcomes of the Economic Affairs Committee vote on a draft EU regulation on short selling and CDS. MEPs also inserted a requirement that short sale transactions be reported less often, but beefed up the rules .......

    News Round-up 8 March 2011
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