3 February 2012
CMBS
Fitch reports that multifamily, along with hotels, has shown the best performance rebound in the US over the past 24 months of all commercial real estate property types. As the economy has stabilised, the two sectors have been able to mark-to-market...

3 February 2012
Structured Finance
Johnson Winter & Slattery has poached a pair of structured finance lawyers. Craig Wappett and Deborah Overstead join the firm in Brisbane as partner and special counsel respectively.
Formerly with Mallesons, Wappett is a financial services...

3 February 2012
ABS
Enterprise Inns has sold 15 pubs, located across the west and south east of England, for £23m to Fullers based on a multiple-to-net income of 13.5x. Given that the pubs appear to have been bought for their trading potential rather than as a...

3 February 2012
Structured Finance
Risk appetite in the US tri-party repo market is returning, reflected in a rise in riskier forms of repo collateral and a decrease in haircuts, according to Fitch. The agency says that structured finance has been the primary driver of the increasing...

3 February 2012
CDOs
An auction is being held to liquidate the Duke Funding High Grade I CDO, almost a year after a previous auction failed to attract enough bids (SCI 23 February 2011). The latest auction is scheduled for 21 February, but its completion is subject to an...

3 February 2012
CDS
The Northern Rock (Asset Management) CDS auction yesterday resulted in the first-ever credit event settlement where the final price rose above par. Dealers bid up the lender's shorter dated bonds, in bucket 1, from an initial market midpoint of 99.25...

3 February 2012
Structured Finance
Sal Naro has formed New York-based Coherence Capital Partners, an asset management company specialising in the fixed income markets. He becomes ceo of the firm, which will invest in companies that show strong performance in their balance sheets while...

2 February 2012
CMBS
Last month the Trepp delinquency rate for US CRE loans in CMBS continued to hover within a narrow band. Overall, the rate in January fell by 6bp points to 9.52%.
For the last three months the delinquency rate has oscillated only slightly higher and...

2 February 2012
RMBS
Lloyds has announced an unexpected tender offer for the Candide 2005 class A, Candide 2006 A2 and Candide 2006 A3 notes. The tender offer is at par for the three triple-A rated RMBS bonds.
The bank says the offer is a liquidity management exercise....

2 February 2012
ABS
Fitch is maintaining a stable rating outlook for US utility tariff bonds in 2012, despite potential declines in consumption due to continued recessionary impacts. The agency says that to date Fitch-rated tariff bonds are performing within expectation...

2 February 2012
CDOs
Lehman Brothers Australia (LBA) has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, in what is said to be an attempt to resolve jurisdictional differences in respect of its liquidation. Cha...

2 February 2012
CLOs
The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved Black Diamond Capital Management's motion for entry of an order in respect of its fourth amended joint Chapter 11 plan for GSC Group. Consequently, Black Diamond is soliciting...

2 February 2012
Structured Finance
Legg Mason Global Asset Management has launched Permal Hedge Strategies Fund, a fixed income-focused multi-manager, multi-strategy fund of hedge funds. The fund invests in a broad range of fixed income strategies, employing flexible asset allocation...

2 February 2012
Structured Finance
Fitch has revised its outlook on 253 tranches of Spanish and Italian structured finance transactions to negative. In addition, 12 tranches of five Irish RMBS transactions have been affirmed, removed from rating watch negative (RWN) and assigned a neg...

2 February 2012
RMBS
President Obama has provided more detail on his plan to help spur mortgage refinancing, following last week's State of the Union address (SCI 25 January). Most elements of the initiative are likely to either require Congressional approval or the FHFA...

2 February 2012
RMBS
The US SEC has charged four former Credit Suisse investment bankers for engaging in a complex scheme to fraudulently overstate the prices of US$3bn in subprime bonds during the height of the subprime credit crisis.
The SEC alleges that Credit Suiss...

1 February 2012
CMBS
The volume of CMBS conduit loans liquidated in January spiked sharply, jumping 51% from December's reading, according to Trepp. In fact, the January reading was the third highest total since the firm began tracking this number in January 2010.
At U...

1 February 2012
CMBS
Robin Priest has joined Alvarez & Marsal Real Estate Advisory Services in London as a senior adviser. He brings more than 30 years of experience in real estate and structured finance to the firm. His primary focus will be working with Europea...

1 February 2012
CDS
National Futures Association (NFA) and MarketAxess Holdings have entered into an agreement that paves the way for NFA to perform regulatory services for MarketAxess' planned swap execution facility. The agreement establishes a preliminary framework f...

1 February 2012
CMBS
Fitch reports that European CMBS loan workouts have become more prevalent as the majority of loans that were due to mature in January 2012 remain outstanding. The total number of loans being worked out due to maturity default increased threefold duri...

1 February 2012
CMBS
S&P has placed on credit watch negative its ratings on 122 tranches in 65 European CMBS transactions. The move follows the rating actions the agency took on banks on 29 November 2011, following the application of its revised bank criteria. Ma...

1 February 2012
RMBS
The agency debt and agency MBS fails charge trading practice recommended by the Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG) becomes effective today (SCI passim). Under the trading practice, a party who fails to deliver securities in a timely manner will i...

1 February 2012
Structured Finance
CoBiz Financial has formed CoBiz Structured Finance, which will provide asset-based loans to middle market businesses. Chris Randall - previously a co-founder, board member and coo of MFC Capital Funding in Chicago - will lead the...

1 February 2012
CLOs
Securities Litigation and Consulting Group has released a study on CLOs issued in July and August 2007. The report purportedly identifies conflicts of interest created when investment banks warehouse loans prior to the issuance of CLOs.
In particul...

31 January 2012
Structured Finance
The Williams Capital Group has added a new division to address structured finance opportunities for corporate, federal, state and local government clients. The Eland Capital division is led by William Lighten.
Lighten has over 20 years of industry...

31 January 2012
Risk Management
Orchestrade Financial Systems and Numerix have announced a partnership to offer integrated access to pricing and risk analytics from Numerix within the Orchestrade trading and risk platform. It enables clients to manage risk and operations on a singl...

31 January 2012
CMBS
Fitch says that the recent decision by the Versailles court of appeal to uphold the initial 'sauvegarde' protection granted to the borrower - a non-FCT SPV - and its parent behind the loan backing the Windermere XII CMBS is curren...

31 January 2012
CDS
Alex Vaskevitch has joined Serone Capital Management as partner. He brings his Zenith High Yield Bond Fund with him and will primarily be responsible for managing the firm's liquid investments and building up the high yield research and execution tea...

31 January 2012
CDS
ICE Clear Credit has begun offering portfolio margining benefits for clearing participants' proprietary positions, allowing for more efficient collateralisation of opposite positions in index and correlated single name credit default swaps. ICE has r...

31 January 2012
CMBS
A group of five attorneys has left Burns White to join Dinsmore in a newly-opened Pennsylvania office. All five attorneys are experienced in CRE and CMBS.
Rich O'Halloran was previously chair of Burns White's business practices group and will serve...

31 January 2012
Structured Finance
Erwan Stervinou has joined GE Capital as structured finance director in Hong Kong. He will now report to Brett Taylor, executive director, and Shane Bennett, structured finance md.
Stervinou was a leveraged finance director at United Overseas Bank....

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
Anthony Schouten and Jeffrey Stern have joined Pillsbury's finance group as partners in New York. They were each formerly with Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.
Schouten's practice spans structured finance, corporate restructuring and comm...

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
Deborah Shire has joined AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (AXA REIM) as global head of business development. It is a new position carrying overall responsibility for corporate finance, investor relations, business development and marketing and com...

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
Jeffrey Shell has joined CBRE as capital markets evp. He will be based in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and focus on capital markets solutions for planned and existing single-tenant assets.
Shell is very experienced in structured finance, investment sal...

30 January 2012
RMBS
S&P has lowered and removed from credit watch negative its credit ratings on all classes of Monastery 2006-I notes. At the same time, it has affirmed and removed from credit watch negative the ratings on all classes of Monastery 2004-I notes....

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
Martin Bartlam is joining DLA Piper's structured finance team. He comes over from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe where he was head of the firm's structured finance group and will begin work in February.
Bartlam specialises in financial stru...

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
AJ Davidson has joined RBS as md and head of hybrid capital in London. He will have responsibility for EMEA and APAC and report to Lee Rochford, head of the bank's financial institutions structured finance team.
Davidson previously worked at Citiba...

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
An IPO has been completed for the DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund, followed by its listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Advised by DoubleLine Capital, the fund is organised as a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company.
The...

30 January 2012
RMBS
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, US Attorney General Eric Holder, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami have unveiled the core mission of the new RMBS Working Group announced by President Obama in the...

30 January 2012
RMBS
SunGard has enhanced its Stream Fail Monitor solution to help financial services firms comply with the expansion of the Treasury Market Practice Group (TMPG) penalties to apply to mortgages and agency debt fails. Under the latest TMPG recommendations...

30 January 2012
CMBS
Losses were incurred on seven of the ten Japanese CMBS loans for which collections were completed in 4Q11, according to S&P. Further, of the nine underlying loans of Japanese CMBS transactions rated by the agency that matured in the fourth qu...

30 January 2012
Structured Finance
Hogan Lovells has expanded its structured finance practice by adding two new partners in New York. Peter Humphreys and Evan Koster join from McDermott Will & Emery and Dewey & LeBoeuf, respectively.
Humphreys' practice is focused on...

27 January 2012
CMBS
Specially serviced US CMBS loans have been on the rise since last quarter and are likely to continue increasing, according to Fitch.
Loans over US$20m moving to special servicing total 15 so far in 2012. A total of 210 loans over US$20m transferred...

27 January 2012
Structured Finance
David Biesemeyer has joined Holland & Knight as structured finance senior counsel in San Francisco. He specialises in equipment leasing, secured lending and factoring as well as facility and project finance.
Biesemeyer has more than 35 year...

27 January 2012
CDOs
The stabilisation trend continues for US bank Trups CDOs as defaults and deferrals finished last year lower than at the end of 2010, according to Fitch's latest index results for the sector.
At 31.09% at end-December, the cumulative rate of default...

27 January 2012
CMBS
The balance of defaulted underlying loans backing Fitch-rated Japanese CMBS was ¥266.2bn at end-December 2011, accounting for more than half of the total underlying loan balance at that time. Although the defaulted loan balance decreased com...

26 January 2012
CDOs
€29.4m Faxtor ABS 2005-1 class A1 notes have been bought back at a discounted purchase price (SCI 3 January). The repurchased notes were subsequently cancelled, thereby increasing the available credit enhancement to all rated notes.
The r...

26 January 2012
RMBS
A lawsuit has been filed against S&P by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The agency is accused of acting dishonestly in assigning high ratings to risky RMBS investments in the run-up to the US housing market crash.
Madigan alleges th...

26 January 2012
Structured Finance
Daniel Mudd has resigned from Fortress Investment Group. He took a leave of absence from his role as ceo last month (SCI 22 December 2011).
Mudd says: "I want to thank Fortress for the opportunity to help lead the company over the last few years. H...

26 January 2012
CDS
The auction to settle the credit derivative trades for Northern Rock (Asset Management) is to be held on 2 February. ISDA's EMEA Determinations Committee determined that a restructuring credit event occurred with respect to Northern Rock (Asset Manag...

26 January 2012
CMBS
Tesco's latest sale-and-leaseback transaction - the £450m Tesco Property Finance 5 - has priced at 275bp over gilts via Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS. The previous four Tesco CMBS widened on the back of the news by...

26 January 2012
Structured Finance
Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp (AGM) has entered into an agreement to reassume US$12.9bn of par it had previously ceded to Radian Asset Assurance. At the same time, Assured Guaranty Corp (AGC) has agreed to reinsure approximately US$1.8bn of Radian...

26 January 2012
ABS
Eric Daniels has joined StormHarbour as a principal and senior advisor. Daniels retired from Lloyds Banking Group last year after seven years as ceo.
Daniels will provide strategic advice and insight to StormHarbour's issuer and investor clients an...

25 January 2012
CMBS
Moody's has released its latest monthly update on specially serviced EMEA CMBS loans. As of year end, 114 loans were in special servicing across the large multi-borrower and single borrower transactions the agency monitors. The Princes loan, securiti...

25 January 2012
CDS
Avenue Capital Group has hired Stephen Trevor to lead a new initiative focusing on US and European distressed-for-control investments. Trevor joins the company from Morgan Stanley Investment Management as senior md.
...

24 January 2012
CMBS
Oaktree was the only firm to deploy additional Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) capital in Q4, according to the US Treasury Department's latest update on the programme. The fund deployed about US$29m in equity, increasing the total gross paid...

24 January 2012
RMBS
A meeting has been convened on 17 February for Eurosail Prime-UK 2007-A class A noteholders to consider, and if appropriate, pass an extraordinary resolution to terminate the hedging agreement with Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (LBHI) and agree to a st...

24 January 2012
CMBS
Guardian Solutions has changed its name to Alliance Commercial Group. The firm will continue to specialise in CMBS restructuring and resolution advisory services.
Alliance has also established a new division offering access to private and instituti...

24 January 2012
RMBS
S&P has taken various rating actions on all classes of notes in the Granite UK RMBS master trust. The move follows the agency's counterparty analysis, as well as credit and cashflow analysis of the most recent transaction information that it...

24 January 2012
CLOs
Aside from a few patches of volatility and a marginal late-year uptick in defaults, the US CLO market exhibited more stability in 2011 than in recent years, according to S&P. The improved performance of the transactions - which are...

24 January 2012
Risk Management
OpenLink Financial has rolled out initiatives focused on accelerating compliance with Dodd-Frank regulatory milestones scheduled for 2012. Among these initiatives are: a Dodd-Frank regulatory compliance reporting package; CFTC position limits monitor...

23 January 2012
RMBS
DataQuick has released RiskFinder Distress, a tool designed to provide investors, lenders and servicers with the ability to search and analyse the risk levels of distressed properties nationwide. The service enables users to track key distress events...

23 January 2012
RMBS
As measured by total loans cured and cashflows from their loans, the performance of residential mortgage servicers deteriorated in 3Q11, according to Moody's latest Servicer Dashboard report. The agency says a lower volume of loan modifications contr...

23 January 2012
Structured Finance
S&P has taken various credit rating actions on 340 tranches in 235 European structured finance transactions. The move follows the agency's 13 January rating actions on 16 eurozone members - Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland...

23 January 2012
Structured Finance
The rankings in the SCI league tables for bank arrangers in the structured credit and ABS markets have been finalised for 2011, with JPMorgan taking top spot on both sides of the Atlantic. The year saw a total of US$263.5bn qualifying deals completed...

23 January 2012
Structured Finance
PIMCO has announced a raft of promotions, including a number of senior structured finance positions. Four members of the firm become evp at PIMCO's Newport Beach office.
Marco van Akkeren becomes evp and portfolio manager, focusing on ABS and MBS....

23 January 2012
CDS
The GFMA has posted a test file of provisional legal entity identifiers (LEIs), created by the DTCC and SWIFT. This information is being made available so that member firms and other financial market participants can begin to evaluate, understand and...

23 January 2012
RMBS
Moody's expects the performance of UK RMBS master trusts containing prime mortgages to remain stable, experiencing only a marginal deterioration in 2012 as a result of the slow domestic economic recovery. Performance in master trusts with a high prop...

23 January 2012
ABS
US credit card charge-offs declined by 34bp in December to 5.04%, according to Moody's latest credit card indices. Also during the month delinquencies fell to new record lows, pointing to further declines in charge-offs in the months ahead.
Moody's...

23 January 2012
CLOs
Barclays Bank has commenced a tender offer to purchase for cash all outstanding class A2L, A3L, B1L and B2L notes, as well as four million preferred shares of ACA CLO 2005-1. The notes are being offered at between US$900-US$950 for each US$1,000 prin...

23 January 2012
CDOs
Following a tender offer announced on 19 December, €8m Faxtor ABS 2004-1 class A1 notes have been repurchased at an aggregate price of €4.36m. The repurchase was funded by principal proceeds in the principal account of the issuer...

23 January 2012
CDS
Avoca Capital Holdings has hired Rachel Black as head of capital raising for its credit hedge fund team in London. Black has over 15 years of sales experience and joins from Concerto Asset Management. She has previously held positions at Deutsche Ban...

20 January 2012
CMBS
The delinquency rate on loans included in US CMBS conduit/fusion transactions increased by 5bp in December to 9.32%, according to Moody's Delinquency Tracker (DQT). The rate of loans in special servicing, as measured by Moody's Specially Serviced Loa...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
Deborah Festa has joined Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy as a partner in its Los Angeles office. She joins from O'Melveny & Myers, where she was also a partner.
Festa's practice covers securitisations, complex domestic and off-shore...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
Oakwood Global Finance has hired Emily Hadley as head of CRE loan servicing, marking the company's first foray into the CRE sector. The mortgage servicer already has £2.5bn AUM in the residential space.
Hadley joins from American Appraisal...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen has made Euchung Ung a member of the firm, effective from the start of this year. Ung practices in the firm's real estate group in New York.
Ung advises on the acquisition, disposition, development, manageme...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
AnaCap Financial Partners has held a successful first round of closings of its Credit Opportunities Fund II, with commitments already at £265m after five months of marketing. The fund - which has a hard cap of £350m ...

20 January 2012
RMBS
Alternative investment fund marketplace AlphaMetrix Global Marketplace (AGM) has listed its first dedicated RMBS fund. The fund is managed by Performance Trust Investment Advisors (PTIA), headed by cio Peter Cook and president Douglas Rothschild.
"...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
Greater investor scrutiny of individual assets within structured finance portfolios is a growing trend that could in time help to restore confidence in financial institutions' funding and investment, according to the 2012 Market Insight report by Bis...

20 January 2012
RMBS
S&P has published an unsolicited comment on the Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2012-1 RMBS, which is expected to close on 27 January. The agency has reviewed the preliminary term sheet filed with the SEC and the publicly available loan-level data on...

20 January 2012
ABS
Moody's has issued an RFC on a proposed update to the cashflow assumptions it uses when rating FFELP student loan securitisations. If implemented, the agency warns that it would expect to downgrade the ratings of approximately US$20bn of outstanding...

20 January 2012
ABS
Losses fell for both prime and subprime US auto loan ABS last month. Fitch expects more of the same for the first half of 2012, based on its latest index results for the sector.
Performance has been supported by two consecutive months of stronger u...

20 January 2012
CDS
ISDA's Americas Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has resolved that a bankruptcy credit event occurred in respect of Eastman Kodak Company. An auction will be held in respect of outstanding CDS transactions on the name.
...

20 January 2012
Structured Finance
Moody's has downgraded 22 notes in 11 Greek structured finance transactions, including two tranches of two ABS, 19 tranches of eight RMBS and one tranche in one CLO. The rating action concludes the review initiated on 11 November 2011 on the back of...

20 January 2012
RMBS
The New York Fed has sold US$7bn in face amount of assets from its Maiden Lane II (ML II) portfolio to Credit Suisse through a competitive process. The regulator says the transaction was prompted by an unsolicited offer from Goldman Sachs to BlackRoc...

20 January 2012
CDS
TeraExchange has appointed Marti Tirinnanzi as business development svp. She will be head of the firm's Washington DC office.
Tirinnanzi was most recently chairman of the FHFA's clearinghouse working group. She has worked with the US Congress, CFTC...

19 January 2012
Structured Finance
Colin Fleury, head of ABS at Henderson, is being promoted to head of structured products and advisory, which is being renamed secured credit. Former structured products head Jim Irvine is also being promoted and becomes head of fixed income.
...

19 January 2012
Risk Management
CMA has released CMA NAVigate 1.9, which introduces the ability to upload counterparty marks, set reporting tolerance levels and generate portfolio variance reports. The solution aims to provide customers with the environment, data and tools to manag...

19 January 2012
CDS
Aaron Comerford has joined Clifford Chance's Tokyo office as counsel on the derivatives and structured products team. He was previously at Allen & Overy and specialises in structured credit derivatives transactions, financial guarantee produc...

18 January 2012
Risk Management
The FDIC has approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) that would require certain large insured depository institutions to conduct annual capital-adequacy stress tests. It has also approved a final rule requiring an insured depository institutio...

18 January 2012
RMBS
The US SEC has charged UBS Global Asset Management with failing to properly price securities in three mutual funds it managed, resulting in a misstatement to investors of the NAVs of those funds.
The misconduct was discovered during an SEC investig...

18 January 2012
ABS
CatVest Petroleum Services has launched its EnergyRisk Model and Industry Loss Index. The firm's modelling services are specifically designed to assist with the transfer of risks to the capital markets through the use of financial instruments, such a...

18 January 2012
ABS
Assurant is to sell a third issuance of notes from its Ibis Re II programme, having last tapped the market in April 2010. Ibis Re II 2012-1 will issue approximately US$70m of double-B minus rated class A three-year notes and US$30m of single-B minus...

18 January 2012
CDS
The final price for trades referencing SEAT PAGINE GIALLE was determined to be 45 during yesterday's SEAT LCDS auction. Three dealers submitted initial markets, physical settlement requests and limit orders to the auction administered by Creditex and...

18 January 2012
RMBS
Kroll Bond Rating Agency has published its inaugural RMBS presale report, having assigned preliminary ratings to eight classes of mortgage pass-through certificates from Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2012-1. The transaction is secured by two pools of first-...

18 January 2012
ABS
S&P has published a request for comment (RFC) on proposed changes to the methodologies and assumptions it uses to rate fully and partially credit-enhanced multiseller ABCP conduits. The RFC focuses specifically on proposed criteria for the mi...

18 January 2012
CDS
CPSS and IOSCO have published their final report on the OTC derivatives data that should be collected, stored and disseminated by trade repositories (TRs). The committees support the view that TRs, by collecting such data centrally, would provide aut...

18 January 2012
Structured Finance
Alexander Nagel has joined Global Evolution with a focus on formulating absolute return strategies within emerging markets debt and FX. He will join the company in Switzerland, where it is currently establishing an office.
Nagel was most recently a...

18 January 2012
Risk Management
RangeMark Financial Services and Cooperstein Analytics (CA) have established RangeMark Analytics (RA). RA will license its analytics platform to financial institutions, investors and government agencies for valuation and risk assessment of mortgage l...

18 January 2012
Structured Finance
Juan Manuel Gonzalez Bernal has joined Greenburg Traurig's newly established Mexico City office as a shareholder. He joins the global energy and infrastructure practice.
Gonzalez practices in DCM and advises on structured financings and cross-borde...

18 January 2012
CMBS
A new firm has launched in the CRE space, offering a source of capital solutions and expertise. SL Capital is an affiliate of The Lynd Company, providing capital from US$3m to US$200m-plus for commercial loan programmes and non-performing notes.
Th...

17 January 2012
CDS
Markit is supplementing its end-of-day prices for credit default swaps with a new sensitivities report that is designed to give clients valuable information about the relationship between a CDS price and other market variables.
The new Markit CDS S...

17 January 2012
Risk Management
RiskSpan has appointed John Lynch as executive of its independent pricing service. He was most recently vp and head of valuations at Alliance Bernstein.
Lynch has previously worked for Blackrock, AIG, UBS and EJV in a series of senior pricing and v...

17 January 2012
RMBS
Recent reforms of the INFONAVIT Law should result in better asset quality in new mortgage loans that are eligible for securitisation in the future, according to Moody's. One of the most significant items from a credit perspective is that INFONAVIT wi...

17 January 2012
ABS
Fitch's outlook for aircraft ABS performance in 2012 remains mixed. While base-case expectations call for relatively stable aircraft values and lease rates, a eurozone debt crisis-driven recession could substantially affect that outlook. Downgrades o...

17 January 2012
CDS
TriOptima's triReduce compression service for both interest rate and credit default swaps terminated US$62trn in OTC derivative notional principal outstanding in 2011. This included US$56.4trn in interest rate swap notional principal, of which US$48....

17 January 2012
CMBS
The borrower behind the Titan Europe 2006-4FS CMBS has given notice in connection with the Four Seasons loan that it will not meet the minimum prepayment amount. As a result, investors will receive a step-up in coupon for both the class A1 and A2 not...

17 January 2012
CLOs
S&P has issued a request for comment on a proposed revision to its methodology and assumptions for rating SME CLOs. The agency is proposing to adopt the global methodology for rating corporate CDOs, where appropriate, and adapting for the Eur...

17 January 2012
RMBS
Fitch reports that the low level of completed foreclosures in prime Dutch RMBS transactions is adding to the pressure on collateral performance. This follows the agency's review of 51 prime Dutch RMBS transactions, which resulted in 173 tranches bein...

17 January 2012
Structured Finance
S&P has lowered the triple-A long-term issuer credit rating on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to double-A plus and affirmed the short-term issuer credit rating at A-1+. The ratings were also removed from credit watch, where...

17 January 2012
RMBS
Banco BPI is set to purchase only €149.3m from its recent fixed tender offer for over €2bn of Douro RMBS (SCI 11 January). With a take-up rate of less than 7%, far fewer bonds were tendered then had been expected.
ABS analysts a...

17 January 2012
Risk Management
Lloyds Bank has recruited Cris Kinrade as head of counterparty exposure management and solutions in London. He will report to head of trading Richard Moore, who is also joining in March.
Kinrade has over 20 years of experience performing roles acro...

16 January 2012
RMBS
Freddie Mac has priced a 2.06% US$3bn mortgage-linked amortising note (MLAN) security due on 15 January 2022. MLANs are senior unsecured debt obligations whose cashflows mimic the principal payments of referenced agency mortgage-related securities he...

16 January 2012
ABS
Moody's expects deterioration in the credit quality of European banks to negatively affect new and existing SME ABS transactions, leading to a rise in loan defaults in 2012. The impact will be most acute in transactions without additional structural...

13 January 2012
CDOs
Late-pays for US CRE CDOs finished the year at a lower level than in 2010, according to the latest Fitch index results. CRE CDO delinquencies for December came in at 12.5%, down from 13.6% at December 2010 and a 14.8% peak in April 2011.
The senior...

13 January 2012
ABS
Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas are marketing the third Vitality Re medical benefit claims ILS. Vitality Re III 2012-1 is a two-tranche deal, comprising US$105m class A notes preliminarily rated triple-B plus by S&P and US$45m class B notes cur...

13 January 2012
CDS
Thames River has made changes in its global credit team, which is headed by Stephen Drew. Brett Golledge and Jennifer James both join in senior roles as part of the reorganisation.
Golledge will become co-manager of the credit team's funds alongsid...

13 January 2012
CDS
Markit iTraxx LevX market makers have determined that a failure to pay credit event occurred in respect of SEAT Pagine Gialle, a constituent of the index and the subject of single name LCDS trades. They have voted to hold an auction in respect of SEA...

13 January 2012
RMBS
The credit performance of private-label RMBS in the US continues to face many challenges in 2012, Moody's says in its annual outlook report on the sector, with strategic defaults posing a major risk. The performance of the loan pools backing outstand...

12 January 2012
ABS
Moody's credit outlook for US ABCP in 2012 is negative, although its outlook for the credit quality of assets funded by ABCP is neutral to improving. The volume of outstanding commercial paper will likely decline this year.
"Our outlook for ABCP is...

12 January 2012
Structured Finance
Schulte Roth & Zabel has named a new structured finance partner. David Karp, based in the New York and London offices, is promoted to the role after six years with the firm.
Karp's practice focuses on corporate restructuring, special situat...

12 January 2012
CLOs
Oak Hill Advisors has named four new partners, who will join the six existing partners in leading the firm and directing investment in the North American and European credit markets. The new partners are Alexandra Jung, Adam Kertzner, Jeffrey Kirt an...

12 January 2012
RMBS
Moody's highlights in a new special report that Spanish mortgage loans most likely to default are those with high LTV ratios, securitised in arrears of up to 30 days, made to foreign residents or originated via a broker. LTVs are shown to be the main...

12 January 2012
CDOs
Anchorage Capital's chapter 11 plan for the liquidation of the Zais Investment Grade VII CDO (SCI passim) has been approved, becoming the first-ever involuntary prepackaged case brought under the US bankruptcy code. It is also the first and only use...

12 January 2012
CMBS
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has utilised additional capacity under its master repurchase agreement with Wells Fargo Bank to refinance all of its TALF debt outstanding.
Prior to the refinancing, Apollo had TALF borrowings totalling US$250....

11 January 2012
CMBS
Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) has added a director to the debt placement group in its New Jersey office. Tom Graziano was most recently vp at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York.
In his new role, Graziano will focus on debt, structured fin...

11 January 2012
CDS
ISDA has announced the membership and charter of its Industry Clearing Committee (ICC). The ICC, which consists of a broad cross-section of OTC derivatives industry market participants, was formed in June to meet current and emerging industry needs i...

11 January 2012
ABS
Berwin Leighton Paisner has added a structured finance specialist to its banking and capital markets group. Prashanth Satyadeva joins from Clifford Chance, where he was a securitisation partner.
Satyadeva advises banks, funds, corporates and others...

11 January 2012
Structured Finance
Ogier intends to open a boutique law firm in Luxembourg and set up a fiduciary business in the country later this year, focusing on corporate and fund administration business. It would make Ogier the first offshore firm to have an onshore legal prese...

11 January 2012
CLOs
Highland Capital Management has appointed a business development md in its New York office. Brian Rice joins from Investcorp International and reports to head of business development Clay Shumway.
Rice is primarily responsible for business developm...

11 January 2012
Structured Finance
Washington DC-based law firm Venable has hired Daniel Danello as of counsel. Danello has previously worked for Fannie Mae and joins from Ropes & Gray.
Danello specialises in derivatives, repos, regulatory and compliance matters. He spent 10...

11 January 2012
Risk Management
GreySpark Partners has released a report examining the expected impact of OTC derivatives clearing from the buy-side, sell-side and third-party vendor perspectives. The report looks at the regulatory picture in Europe and the US, focusing on the MiFI...

11 January 2012
RMBS
S&P's global surveillance analytics team has developed a method for assessing US mortgage servicers' default management processes. The aim is for investors to use the method to assess how effective servicers' strategies are in limiting losses...

11 January 2012
CMBS
Freddie Mac is preparing a free database tool for investors and analysts to monitor the performance and credit quality of its multifamily K-Deal MBS. The Multifamily Securities Investor Access tool is designed to increase transparency and save invest...

11 January 2012
CLOs
DBRS is requesting comments on proposed changes to the methodology it uses to rate and monitor CLOs and CDOs of large corporate credits. The updated methodology will cover US, European and Asian transactions.
The proposed revised methodology includ...

11 January 2012
Structured Finance
A sustainable recovery in European structured finance issuance is unlikely before 2013, due to a combination of factors, Fitch suggests. The agency forecasts public and retained European structured finance issuance for 2012 to be €300bn-&am...

10 January 2012
CMBS
The percentage of CMBS loans paying off at their maturity date fell sharply in December, posting the lowest reading since May 2011, according to the latest Trepp pay-off report.
In December, 37.5% of loans reaching their balloon date paid off. This...

10 January 2012
Structured Finance
Fitch has launched 'Fitch Wire', a new service designed to provide insightful credit commentary on market events as they happen.
"Our rating and research opinions typically reflect a longer time horizon and Fitch Wire complements that analysis with...

10 January 2012
CLOs
JPMorgan's latest global CDO client survey shows that lack of CLO primary supply has significantly increased as a concern from the July 2011 survey, but is tied with the two other top concerns - regulatory reform and CLO spread volatility....

10 January 2012
CDS
CMA has released its 4Q11 global sovereign credit risk report, in which it names the top-ten most and least risky sovereigns, as well as the best and worst performing sovereign CDS. The firm reports that nearly all global CDS prices widened during No...

10 January 2012
RMBS
Fitch suggests that the recommendations in a recent Federal Reserve white paper on the US housing market are challenging, but some may benefit the private-label RMBS sector. The Fed's commentary recommends policies that limit the growth of the invent...

10 January 2012
CDS
TriOptima has appointed Ken Nishimura as head of TriOptima Japan. He will manage the continuing expansion of the company's client relationships in the country as well as the day-to-day operations of the Tokyo office.
Nishimura was a director at Adv...

9 January 2012
RMBS
A noteholder meeting is being convened on 24 January to discuss and approve two proposals related to the Monastery 2006-1, Monastery 2004-1, Chapel 2003-1 and Chapel 2007-1 transactions. The meeting follows one week after a scheduled meeting to discu...

9 January 2012
Structured Finance
SNR Denton has added a new partner to its banking and finance team in London, which it has earmarked for growth. Edward Hickman joins the firm from Linklaters, where he spent six years as a partner in the structured finance team.
Hickman specialise...

9 January 2012
Structured Finance
Kepler Capital Markets has hired Joachim Karoubi Nordon as an advisor in its credit alternative solutions group (ASG) in London. His most recent role was as head of credit market coverage at West Point Derivatives while he has also worked for Commerz...

9 January 2012
Risk Management
The Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, met on 8 January to discuss Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) proposals and its strategy for assessing implementation of the Basel...

9 January 2012
ABS
Assured Guaranty (Europe) has replaced Ambac Assurance UK as financial guarantor and controlling creditor on Worcestershire Hospital SPC, a £97.2m UK Private Finance Initiative bond issue. The move is expected to enhance the creditworthiness...

6 January 2012
CMBS
US CMBS delinquencies finished last year with a fifth straight month of declines, according to the latest US CMBS Loan Delinquency Index results from Fitch. However, office delinquencies are continuing on an upward trajectory.
CMBS late-pays declin...

6 January 2012
CMBS
Morningstar has appointed Gregory Murdock as director of CMBS investor services. He reports to Robert Dobilas, president of Morningstar's structured credit ratings business.
Murdock will work directly with CMBS investors to educate them on Mornings...

6 January 2012
Structured Finance
400 Capital Management has appointed Mark Lewand as director and head of investor relations. He joins the New York-based firm from Cambridge Place Investment Management (CPIM) in London.
Lewand spent 8 years at CPIM, where he was a senior executive...

6 January 2012
CDOs
Dock Street Capital Management has been retained as liquidation agent for Kleros Real Estate CDO IV. The collateral will be sold via two auctions on 18 January.
...

6 January 2012
RMBS
Investors represented by Gibbs & Bruns have issued instructions to US Bank and HSBC, as trustees, to open investigations of ineligible mortgages in pools securing over US$19bn of RMBS issued by Wells Fargo affiliates.
Collectively, the law...

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SCI - An Introduction
Our coverage is divided into news channels, so if you're looking for coverage of, for example Collateralised loan obligations (CLO), Residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS), Commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS), Collateralised debt obligations (CDO), Credit default swap (CDS) or Insurance linked securities (ILS) we've got it covered. And there are several other news categories besides, covering all aspects of structured finance. SCI is aimed at the buy-side; our mission is to provide deeper and more accurate coverage of structured finance to market participants than is available elsewhere. Our readership includes portfolio managers, broker-dealers, hedge funds, CDO managers, asset managers, banks and CFOs the world over. Register for a two week free trial today or subscribe to SCI.
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