A look at the major activity in structured finance over the past seven days.

Pipeline
While the pace of pipeline additions has slowed over the last couple of weeks, new deals do continue to be announced. Last week's ABS additions were US$250.8m Merlin Aviation and US$178m Westchester Tobacco Asset Securitization Corp Series 2016A, 2016B, 2016C.

US$500m Galilei Re series 2016-1 and US$500m Galilei Re series 2017-1 were the two ILS. There were also four RMBS: US$226.44m Bayview Opportunity Master Fund IVb Trust 2016-SPL2; US$127.4m Freddie Mac SCRT Series 2016-1; JPMMT 2016-5; and US$168.79m SoFi 2016-1.

Pricings
While the pace of pipeline additions has slowed, pricings have accelerated. There were six ABS prints last week, along with an ILS, six RMBS, four CMBS and 16 CLOs.

The ABS were: US$825m Citibank Credit Card Issuance Trust 2016-A3; A$333m FP Turbo Series 2016-1 Trust; €500m Indigo Lease 2016; US$215.43m Nelnet Private Education Loan Trust 2016-A; US$505.15m TCF Auto Receivables Owner Trust 2016-PT1; and £268m Towd Point 2016-Granite 3. The ILS was €255m Horse Capital I.

The RMBS were: US$225.75m COLT 2016-3 Mortgage Loan Trust; A$500m Liberty Series 2016-3 Trust; A$2bn Medallion Trust Series 2016-2; €1.26bn Phoenix Funding 6; US$114m RCO 2016-SFR1 Trust; and €600m STRONG 2016.

The CMBS were: US$913.4m CGCMT 2016-P6; US$271m DBWF 2016-85T; US$925m FREMF 2016-K60; and US$233.33m VNDO Trust 2016-350P.

The CLOs consisted of: US$351.3m ABPCI Direct Lending Fund CLO I; US$409.2m BlueMountain CLO 2015-1R; €362.57m Cairn CLO VII; €277.6m CGMSE CLO 2014-1R; €343.2m Eurogalaxy CLO 2013-3R; US$355.5m KVK CLO 2016-1; US$465.5m LCM CLO 2013-13R; US$418m Longfellow Place CLO 2013-1R; US$491.28m Madison Park Funding 2015-16R; US$368.15m Palmer Square 2014-1R; US$399.38m Pinnacle Park CLO 2014-1R; US$373.2m Regatta II Funding 2013-2R; €450.4m St Paul's CLO 2014-3R; €327.5m St Paul's CLO 2014-4R; US$510.45m Taconic Park 2016-1; and US$365.4m Venture CLO 2014-19R.

Editor's picks
Coupon clippers: Refinancing activity is expected to accelerate in Europe in the coming year as the cost of funding encourages more CLO managers to employ the option. Anticipating the impending refinancing wave is deemed significant from both a market value and portfolio management perspective...
Second Salisbury prices wider: Lloyds has closed a capital relief trade referencing a £2.1bn granular portfolio of UK SME loans. The 10-year Salisbury II Securities 2016 deal pays Libor plus 12%, above the plus 10.25% print of the lender's previous Salisbury Securities 2015 transaction...
Odd-lot strategies: The US SEC recently fined PIMCO US$20m for misleading investors about the value of MBS odd lots in its BOND Total Return ETF. Valuing odd lots - particularly MBS - can be somewhat of a grey area and it is likely that PIMCO is not the only firm to have misused evaluated prices in this situation...
Learning by doing: Capital relief trades, also called risk sharing trades, can provide issuing banks with several advantages. However, the transactions are not always well understood by the wider market and even those banks that are involved are learning lessons with each passing deal...
Comfort zone: A backdrop of declining homeownership in the US and a growing number of renters is driving growth in the single-family rental (SFR) securitisation market. However, limited volume, call risk and operational issues mean that the sector can be overlooked by investors, who remain more comfortable with RMBS and CMBS...
US CLOs keep tight: US CLO secondary spreads are keeping tight as demand continues. "Secondary is still very tight, despite the continued flow of re-sets," says one trader. "In particular, the double-B rally continues, but is still offering relative value and seeing strong demand..."

Deal news
• SoFi is in the market with its inaugural RMBS transaction, dubbed SoFi Mortgage Trust 2016-1. The US$168.79m deal comprises 36 classes of mortgage-pass through certificates backed by prime jumbo mortgage loans originated via SoFi's online lending platform.
• AllianceBernstein subsidiary AB Private Credit Investors has priced its inaugural million middle-market CLO. Dubbed ABPCI Direct Lending Fund CLO I, the US$351.3m transaction has a unique feature, whereby a pro-rata percentage of both the collateral and notes can be partitioned off into separate entities (ABPCI Direct Lending Fund CLO I First Static Subsidiary and ABPCI Direct Lending Fund CLO I Second Static Subsidiary) on two static dates - December 2018 and December 2019.
• Freddie Mac is marketing its first credit risk transfer RMBS backed by seasoned re-performing loans - the US$943.52m Freddie Mac Seasoned Credit Risk Transfer Trust 2016-1. The collateral - comprising 4,097 loans - was either purchased by Freddie Mac from securitised Freddie Mac Participation Certificates or retained by the GSE in whole loan form.
• Caliber Home Loans has closed the US$225.75m COLT 2016-3 Mortgage Loan Trust, the first post-crisis non-QM RMBS to feature a triple-A rated tranche. The transaction is backed by 474 fixed- and adjustable-rate prime and non-prime first-lien residential mortgages.
• UniCredit has unveiled plans to divest €17.7bn of NPLs, as part of an effort to deleverage its non-core portfolio. Dubbed Project Fino, the strategy involves transferring two portfolios of NPLs to SPVs in which the bank will retain a minority position.
• S&P has suspended its credit ratings on Honours series 2's class A1, A2, B, C and D notes. The rating agency comments that the suspension is due to the lack of timely receipt of sufficient information of satisfactory quality.
• Moody's has taken rating actions on four TCF Auto Receivables Owner Trust transactions issued in 2014 through 2016, affecting approximately US$944m of ABS bonds. Specifically, the agency has upgraded one security, downgraded two securities and affirmed the ratings of 17 additional securities issued by TCF Auto Receivables Owner Trust 2014-1, 2015-1, 2015-2 and 2016-1.

Regulatory update
• The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from 0.25% to a range of 0.50%-0.75%, which will have varied implications for structured finance, according to Moody's. The rating agency adds that it expects the Fed to raise rates three more times in 2017 to 1.25%-1.50% year-end.
• A federal grand jury in New Haven has returned an indictment charging former Cantor Fitzgerald bond trader, David Demos, with six counts of securities fraud. Demos was a trader and md at Cantor Fitzgerald from November 2011 until his employment was terminated in February 2013.