Complete news archive

  • TBW treasurer charged with fraud

    The US SEC has charged former Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW) Mortgage treasurer Desiree Brown with aiding and abetting a US$1.5bn securities fraud scheme and an attempt to scam the US Treasury's TARP programme.

    The SEC alleges that Brown helped enable the sale of more than US$1.5bn in fictitious and impaired mortgage loans and securities from TBW to Colonial Bank, .......

    Job Swaps 25 February 2011

  • Doubts raised on mortgage financing capacity

    Fitch suggests in a new report that US banks may struggle to provide significant financing capacity in light of the recent housing reform proposals (see SCI 11 February). This is due to the likely persistence of 30-year fixed rate mortgages, which pose interest rate risk management challenges, and the leverage ratio - which limits balance sheet growth. Additionally, during times .......

    News Round-up 24 February 2011

  • Commercial loan business acquired

    Capita has acquired the securitised commercial loan business of Barclays Capital Mortgage Servicing, which provides primary and special loan servicing for commercial real estate finance transactions. On completion, the business will be integrated into the existing Capita Asset Services business.

    Robert Hughes, md of Capita Asset Services, comments: "The acquisition is a natural fit for Capita Asset Services, fully complementing .......

    Job Swaps 24 February 2011

  • Servicer enforcement actions due

    S&P has stated that its residential servicer rankings on GMAC Mortgage, ChaseHome Finance, BAC Home Loans Servicing, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, CitiMortgage and PNC Bank remain on credit watch negative in light of the ongoing review of US servicing practices by regulators. The servicing practices of 14 companies have been under review by US regulators since the middle of last .......

    News Round-up 24 February 2011

  • Polarisation expected for Euro auto ABS

    Robust performance among most European auto ABS has contributed to a return in investor confidence, favourable issuer economics and a consequent renaissance in new issuance, according S&P.

    "According to our data, in the first four weeks of 2011, auto ABS accounted for almost half of all European investor-placed securitisation issuance, with more transactions in the pipeline," says S&P analyst Sabine .......

    News Round-up 24 February 2011

  • TFG sued by former director

    Six Tetragon Financial Group (TFG) directors have been served with proceedings in the Royal Court of Guernsey, instigated by former TFG director Alexander Jackson. Jackson was given notice to vacate office as a director on 24 January (see SCI 25 January).

    Under the proceedings, Jackson is seeking to impugn TFG decision of 29 July to enter into a joint venture .......

    Job Swaps 24 February 2011

  • CRE joint venture formed

    Jefferies Group, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and LoanCore have formed Jefferies LoanCore, a new joint venture CRE finance company.

    Jefferies LoanCore - led by Mark Finerman as ceo - has US$600m in initial equity commitments that will be leveraged appropriately. The new group will originate CRE debt through a team led by Finerman and with the support .......

    Job Swaps 24 February 2011

  • Advisory beefs up hedge fund team

    The Collingwood Group has promoted Mary Lou Christy from svp to md of the organisation. Christy will launch a new investor relations practice, while providing support to its growing hedge fund/private equity advisory business. Prior to joining Collingwood in 2010 (see SCI 29 September), Christy held several executive-level positions at Fannie Mae, including svp of investor relations, vp of the .......

    Job Swaps 24 February 2011

  • Further improvement in credit card charge-offs

    Moody's reports that charge-offs on US credit cards fell for a fifth consecutive month in January to 7.45%, down from 8.03% in December. The agency expects the charge-off rate to increase for the next month or two, before resuming a steady pace of decline that leads it to fall below 7% during the second quarter of the year (see also .......

    News Round-up 24 February 2011

  • CDO counsel named

    Dechert has appointed Lawrence Berkovich as counsel in its finance and real estate group. Based in the firm's Charlotte office, he will focus his practice on complex structured finance transactions, with an emphasis on CLOs and CDOs.

    Berkovich was most recently special counsel at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He represents clients in the structuring and offering of interests in various .......

    Job Swaps 24 February 2011

  • Euro CMBS loan losses filtering through

    Fitch reports that the increased number of loan workouts that commenced in 2010 is beginning to result in loss allocations to some European CMBS transactions. Four loans securitised in Fitch-rated transactions had a loss allocation during Q4, bringing the total for 2010 to six loans. No losses were realised in the previous year, the agency says.

    Loan defaults and transfers .......

    News Round-up 24 February 2011

  • Equity appetite driving CLO bid-lists

    Bid-list activity is once again dominating investor attention in the US CLO market. In particular, demand for equity continues to drive prices higher at the bottom of the capital structure.

    "We've seen a very strong market in terms of bid-lists; in fact, it's all been driven by bid-lists over the last two weeks - the market's been on fire," one .......

    Market Reports 24 February 2011

  • Electronic surge

    Banks rushing to provide CDS trading access ahead of regulations

    Barclays Capital, UBS and Credit Suisse have in recent months all launched electronic trading for CDS on Bloomberg (SCI passim). While some market participants believe this is an inevitable development in response to upcoming regulations, not everybody is convinced about a pure electronic trading strategy.

    Farooq Jaffrey, Traccr founder and ceo, believes the recent movement towards electronic trading is being .......

    News Analysis 24 February 2011

  • Auto loan ABS losses spike

    US prime auto loan ABS losses rose by 12% last month, although seasonal factors are likely to drive both delinquency and loss rates down during the next couple of months, according to Fitch.

    "The arrival of tax refunds, annual bonuses and salary increases make the February-April period typically one of the strongest for auto ABS asset performance. Despite the rise .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • Trups CDO defaults, deferrals pick up

    The New Year began with a slight pick-up in default and deferral activity for US bank Trups CDOs, according to Fitch's latest indices for the sector. Bank defaults increased by 0.36% to 15.17% at 31 January, while bank deferrals rose 0.12% to 18.19%.

    The combined default and deferral rate for banks within Trups CDOs increased to 33.36% from 32.88%, while .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • CDO auction fails to attract enough bids

    Investors in the Duke Funding High Grade I CDO have been informed that an auction call redemption will not occur on the 7 March quarterly distribution date. This is because the trustee was unable to sell the collateral via an auction as it didn't receive bids that, together with the balance of all eligible investments and cash in the accounts, .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • Euro CRE recovery limited to prime sector

    Signs of recovery in the European commercial real estate market are being reported, but only in for prime properties, according to S&P. Given that the European CMBS universe is secured mainly by secondary assets, the agency therefore believes that loan maturity performance will remain under pressure in 2011.

    Reports of asset sales over the past 12 months indicate that the .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • US CRE prices dip slightly

    After three consecutive months of increases, US commercial real estate prices declined by 0.9% in December, according to Moody's/REAL National - All Property Price Index (CPPI). Although overall 2010 prices fell by 2.1%, the index has recovered by 5.5% since reaching its low in August 2010. Prices at the end of December stood at 42.1% below the October 2007 peak, .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • Used vehicle market supports auto ABS

    Strong recovery rates and residual realisations among both new and used vehicles should continue to benefit asset and ratings performance for US auto ABS into next year, according to Fitch.

    Robust used vehicle values will likely continue to be supported by the notable reduction in supply of vehicles coming into the used vehicle market that began in 2009, the agency .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • CBOE to list credit event options

    The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will begin trading newly-designed credit event binary options (CEBOs) contracts on 8 March.

    CEBOs contracts allow investors to express an opinion on whether a company will experience a credit event. Due to inverse correlations between credit and equity markets, CEBO contracts can also be used as a hedging tool for individual stocks, while also .......

    News Round-up 23 February 2011

  • SEF beefs up leadership team

    Javelin Capital Markets has appointed Mike Hisler and Chris Koppenheffer as its CDS and interest rate swaps heads respectively.

    Hisler most recently launched the boutique investment bank, Hexagon. Prior to this, he was md of institutional credit sales at UBS, where he focused on management and sales of corporate credit and structured products.

    Koppenheffer was most recently at Mizuho Capital .......

    Job Swaps 23 February 2011
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