Sector developments and company hires

UCI’s sustainable finance strategy supported
The EIB Group and Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) have disclosed their participation in UCI’s recent RMBS Green Prado XI, which was partially preplaced last month (see SCI’s ABS Markets Daily – 23 March). Under the transaction, the two organisations aim to promote the renovation and construction of homes using sustainable criteria in Spain and Portugal. The transaction complies with the STS framework and Sustainalytics’ Green Bond Framework.

The EIB Group will make an investment commitment of €240m, €200m of which - split into €121.4m for the class A notes and €78.6m for the class Bs - has already been disbursed by the EIB. The EIF intends to implement its €40m commitment in the most senior class in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, ICO is investing €100m in the class A notes.

The funding will extend access to new green and sustainable loans to individuals and condominiums that are investing in building renovations. Mortgage loans for the purchase of homes meeting high energy-efficiency standards will also be eligible.

According to UCI estimates, the final energy savings generated by the deal in Spain and Portugal are expected to be 396GWh a year and 100,904 tonnes a year of CO_2, equivalent to the annual energy use of 28,937 households. The project will also provide an additional boost to the European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) programme, which offers technical assistance for energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable urban transport projects.

In other news…

EMEA
KBRA has promoted Killian Walsh to md, ABS, based in Dublin. He was previously senior director at the rating agency, which he joined in December 2019. Before that, Walsh was director, securitisation at ING.

North America
Flexpoint Ford has appointed David Moffitt senior advisor – operating partner, based in New York. He was previously US co-head of credit management at Investcorp, which he joined in September 2020. Before that, Moffitt worked at LibreMax Capital, JC Flowers and Morgan Stanley, among other firms.

‘Synthetic’ Libor settings to continue
Further to its November 2022 consultation (SCI 23 November 2022), the UK FCA has decided to use its powers under the UK Benchmarks Regulation (UK BMR) to require ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) to continue the publication of the one-, three- and six-month US dollar Libor settings using an unrepresentative ‘synthetic’ methodology. The FCA will require IBA to publish these settings for a temporary period after 30 June 2023, following the end of the US dollar Libor bank panel, and intends for them to cease on 30 September 2024.

From 1 July 2023, all new use of ‘synthetic’ US dollar Libor by UK supervised entities will be prohibited under the UK BMR, although its use will be permitted by supervised entities in all legacy contracts, except for cleared derivatives.

IBA is also currently required by the FCA to publish the three-month ‘synthetic’ sterling Libor setting, which the FCA expects to cease on 28 March 2024.