Complete news archive

  • BMO SIVs on review

    Moody's has placed the Euro and US MTN programmes of the Links Finance and Parkland Finance SIVs on review for possible downgrade. The vehicles are sponsored by the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and there is a direct linkage between the ratings of the SIVs and of BMO due to the commitment of BMO to provide a liquidity facility for the .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2010

  • Structured finance pair promoted

    Perella Weinberg Partners has elected six individuals to join its partnership from 1 January 2011, two of whom are structured finance professionals. Andrew Dym and Mark McGreenery work in the firm's asset management department in New York.

    Dym has 23 years of experience in the structured finance industry. Prior to joining Perella Weinberg in 2008, he held positions of global .......

    Job Swaps 22 December 2010

  • CDPC counterparty rating downgraded

    Moody's has downgraded the counterparty rating of NewLands Financial to Aa2, where it remains under review for possible downgrade. The agency has also withdrawn its ratings on all of the CDPC's outstanding debt.

    NewLands redeemed all of its debt with a face value of US$385m on 20 December, leaving just over US$130m in capital to support its US$5.45bn notional CDS .......

    News Round-up 22 December 2010

  • Growth prospects?

    Economic, regulatory uncertainty dogs the outlook for US ABS

    US ABS issuance volumes are expected to increase by about 10% in 2011 - largely as a function of growth in the underlying consumer sector. Although the market is likely to continue benefitting from positive fundamentals and technicals, regulation remains the wild card going into next year.

    The US ABS market has gradually opened up as the months go by .......

    News Analysis 21 December 2010

  • Judgment analysed in swaps case

    ISDA has commented on Justice Briggs judgment handed down in the case of Lomas and others v JFB Firth Rixson and others. The case involved four out-of-the-money counterparties declining to terminate their ISDA Master Agreements with Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE), relying on section 2(a)(iii) of ISDA's Master Agreement to not make payments to LBIE. The Administrators consequently sought directions .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2010

  • RMBS data integrated

    BlackBox Logic has partnered with Thetica Systems to improve its RMBS forecasting. Under the agreement, the Thetica platform will integrate BBx Data, thereby offering a high-speed analytics module capable of running multiple bonds simultaneously under various scenarios.

    The tool allows for the most precise RMBS forecasting, the two firms say, utilising BBx's dataset and client or third-party credit and default .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2010

  • Liquidity lifeline

    Clearing to renew confidence in face of threat to CDS liquidity

    Gloomy predictions are being made for credit derivatives, with forecasts for future liquidity in the market divided. The demise of CSOs could have a catastrophic knock-on effect, but there is also hope that initiatives such as clearing may just do enough to salvage CDS liquidity and revive the market. (The full SCI Special Report on CDS can be downloaded at .......

    News Analysis 21 December 2010

  • Second consecutive rise for CRE prices

    US commercial real estate prices as measured by Moody's/REAL National - All Property Price Index (CPPI) increased by 1.3% in October, the second consecutive monthly increase for the index.

    As of the end of October, prices were up 3.2% from one year ago, yet down by 34.4% from two years ago. Prices are currently 41.9% below the peak values reached .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2010

  • Disparity continues in EMEA performance outlooks

    Moody's has raised its performance outlooks to stable from negative for ABS and RMBS in parts of the EMEA region, while outlooks for these securities in other countries remain negative. The disparity in outlooks is based on continued differences in the pace of economic recovery among individual countries, the agency reports.

    Moody's notes that economic improvement in Germany, France, the .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2010

  • Former Comptroller set to return

    The former US Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan is rejoining Covington & Burling as partner. Dugan will chair the firm's financial institutions group and advise clients on a range of legal matters affected by the increased regulatory requirements.

    Most recently, Dugan directed the OCC's efforts to help shape critical parts of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. "With over .......

    Job Swaps 21 December 2010

  • CCP capitalisation consultation underway

    The Basel Committee has issued a consultative paper on the capitalisation of bank exposures to central counterparties (CCPs) in particular, those related to the capitalisation of default fund exposures.

    The Committee says it is giving affected parties and stakeholders an opportunity to comment on the proposed rules. Mark White, chair of the Basel Committee's risk management and modelling group and .......

    News Round-up 21 December 2010

  • Investment consulting arm adds directors

    Timothy Ng and Mark Hong have joined Clearbrook Global Advisors' investment consulting arm, Clearbrook Investment Consulting. As md and head of research, Ng will oversee all aspects of the Clearbrook research process. As director, Hong will play an integral role in the research and allocation of alternative investments.

    Hong is the former co-founder and principal of Structured Investment Group (SIG), .......

    Job Swaps 21 December 2010

  • State-backed CCP still on the cards

    Rumours abound in the CDS market that the European Parliament still harbours a desire to create a single European central counterparty. The CCP would be backed by the ECB, although details of exactly how it would work remain unconfirmed.

    One CDS strategist believes a single European central counterparty is an exciting prospect. He says: "I have heard the rumour, but .......

    News 21 December 2010

  • SF counterparty criteria reviewed

    Fitch says it expects limited changes after its annual review of structured finance counterparty criteria. The minor changes to the criteria - such as content, marginal updates and supporting analysis - will be implemented to incorporate its latest advance rates and volatility cushion calculations.

    Fitch further expects the focus of the review to be on making any improvements to the .......

    News Round-up 20 December 2010

  • CMBS joint strategy announced

    Bank of America Merrill Lynch has entered into a formal agreement with AEGON USA Realty Advisors that will enable it to source new lending opportunities for its CMBS securitisation programme.

    Mike Mazzei, global head of CMBS at BofA, says: "AEGON has a very successful and established commercial real estate lending platform. As the CMBS market continues to recover, this relationship .......

    Job Swaps 20 December 2010

  • Lodestone II closes

    The second catastrophe bond offering from the Lodestone Re programme has closed (see also SCI 1 December). The cedant, Chartis subsidiary National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, was able to obtain upsized cover of US$450m from an initial US$250m.

    S&P has confirmed its preliminary double-B plus and double-B ratings to the transaction's series 2010-2 US$125m class A-1 and US$325m .......

    News 20 December 2010

  • Positive momentum

    APAC private placement, local currency deals to continue

    Asia-Pacific (ex-Australia) structured finance is set to continue to be characterised by private placements and local currency transactions in 2011. However, the new offshore deliverable CNY market (CNH) could provide even greater opportunities in the region longer term.

    Vincent Moge, head of APAC sales and head of StormHarbour's Singaporean office, notes that - while securitisation is essentially limited to countries .......

    News Analysis 20 December 2010

  • SIV operating amendment mooted

    Nightingale Finance is proposing to amend its operating manual between the investment manager and the administrator. The amendment will enable the issuer to enter into a reverse repo trade with its sponsor AIG Financial Products, without restriction to asset eligibility criteria, so long as committed financing from its sponsor is in place.

    The maximum proposed size of the trade is .......

    News Round-up 20 December 2010

  • Delinquent unpaid CMBS balance reverts

    The delinquent unpaid US CMBS balance in November 2010 increased by US$1.94bn, up to US$61.11bn (a 3.3% increase), according to Realpoint's latest Monthly Delinquency Report. This followed the previous month's substantial decrease of US$3.02bn - the first reported decrease in over a year.

    The delinquent unpaid balance for CMBS at such time had decreased uncharacteristically to US$59.18bn from US$62.19bn a .......

    News Round-up 20 December 2010

  • Impact of new capital standards estimated

    The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) have concluded their assessment of the macroeconomic impact of the transition to the new bank capital and liquidity standards. The report examines the impact of the transition to stronger capital requirements assuming a transition period of eight years, based on an estimate of the December 2009 level of .......

    News Round-up 20 December 2010

  • CRE firm adds debt and equity md

    Grubb & Ellis has appointed Richard Jarocki as md in its debt & equity finance group. He will co-manage the group's efforts in the Northeast of the US, alongside former head of Citi's CMBS lending programme Steven Roberts.

    Jarocki joins the firm from Rock Financial Consulting, where he advised on debt vehicles and processes. Prior to this, he spent eight .......

    Job Swaps 20 December 2010
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