Sector developments and company hires

Unrepresentative ‘synthetic’ Libor mooted

The UK FCA has published a consultation on a proposal to require - using its powers under the UK Benchmarks Regulation - ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), the administrator of Libor, to publish one-, three- and six-month US dollar Libor settings under an unrepresentative ‘synthetic’ methodology after the end of June 2023 until the end of September 2024. Additionally, the FCA intends to require IBA to continue to publish the three-month ‘synthetic’ sterling Libor setting until the end of March 2024.

The consultation also seeks views on the proposed methodology the FCA would require IBA to use to determine ‘synthetic’ US dollar Libor and on which legacy use of ‘synthetic’ US dollar Libor the FCA should permit. The consultation will remain open until 6 January 2023 and the FCA expects to announce its decision in late Q1 or early Q2 next year.

In other news…

EMEA

Ashurst has named Martin Kaiser head of securitisation (Europe), based in Frankfurt. He has been a partner at the firm since September 2017, having previously been a partner in Baker & McKenzie’s German banking and finance practice.

Global

White & Case has promoted 26 lawyers to local partner and 14 lawyers to counsel, effective from 1 January 2023, including five whose practice involves securitisations.

Caitlin Colesanti has been named counsel in the firm’s global capital markets practice. Based in New York, her practice focuses on advising domestic issuers, investment banks and sponsors on whole business securitisations, rental car securitisations, asset-backed financings, receivables financings and CLO issuances and refinancings.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Markus Fischer has been named a local partner in White & Case’s global debt finance practice. Based in Frankfurt, his practice focuses on advising banks and other financial institutions, private equity investors and corporates on complex, cross-border finance transactions, including the acquisition and sale of non-performing loan portfolios, structured finance, real estate finance and project finance.

Alfonso Garcia Freire has been named counsel in its global debt finance practice. Based in Madrid, his practice focuses on advising major commercial banks, investment banks, financial institutions, private equity sponsors and corporate borrowers on cross-border and domestic leveraged acquisition financings, financial restructurings, syndicated and bilateral loans, securitisations and debt capital markets.

Claire-Marie Mallad has been named a local partner in the firm’s global capital markets practice. Based in Frankfurt, her practice focuses on advising financial institutions, investors and issuers on a wide range of capital markets transactions, including EMTN and CP programmes, regulatory capital and structured finance products.

Finally,Xuan Jin has been named a local partner in White & Case’s global capital markets practice. Based in Hong Kong, his practice focuses on advising issuers, sponsors and arrangers across a number of jurisdictions on debt capital markets, including securitisations and other structured finance and private credit sectors.

North America

Carlyle has announced 32 new partners and 39 new mds across 26 offices globally, effective from 1 January 2023, including two within its US loans and structured credit unit. Matt Stanczuk has been promoted to partner, while Megan Saltzman has been named md. Prior to joining Carlyle, Stanczuk was an associate in the controllers group at Goldman Sachs (within leveraged finance) and Saltzman was a vp in the private credit group of Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking division.

Fannie Mae has completed its 11th and final CIRT transaction of 2023 with 21 insurers and reinsurers.

The covered loan pool for CIRT 2022-11 consists of 34,000 single-family mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of US$10.1bn. All the loans have an LTV of between 60.01% and 80% and were acquired in November and December of last year.

Fannie Mae retains the initial 65bp of loss. If this US$65.5m retention layer is breached, then the 21 participants in the deal cover the next 340bp of loss to a maximum of US$343m.

Both GSEs have made greater use of the reinsurance market to transfer risk this year as their CAS and STACR programmes have encountered much wider spreads and general volatility as a result of macro-economic headwinds.

Figure is expanding its digital fund listing business as Apollo and Hamilton Lane launch new digital-native investment vehicles using Figure’s Digital Fund Services (DFS). The two asset managers will harness the innovative technology used at Figure to resolve business challenges, and the collaboration marks a further step in the wider adoption of blockchain in the financial services industry.

Figure’s DFS platform supports on-chain fund subscriptions and ongoing fund operations and administration and will allow asset managers to capitalise on the opportunity for increased accessibility, digital onboarding, and liquidity through its digital marketplace and real-time digitalisation operations. Investors can also benefit from Universal Passporting, which allows for an anonymised record of verified KYC credentials to be stored on-chain for use across multiple funds.

DFS and the digital-native funds will leverage the purpose-built for financial services public blockchain and ecosystem, Provenance, which is currently leveraged by over 60 financial firms and has supported more than US$12bn in transactions. Clients of DFS can also leverage Figure’s alternative trading system (ATS) for secondary transactions in private company securities and fund interests for Provenance-build smart contracts.

Vista Credit has announced the expansion of its direct lending business with the hire of new senior md, Greg Galligan. Galligan will manage the direct lending business within the firm’s multi-product credit platform and will work to help boost its origination and underwriting efforts for sponsor-backed and founder-led borrowers. In his new role, he will report to the firm’s president and senior md, David Flannery, and will also serve on the Vista Credit Partner’s Investment Committee. Galligan joins the firm with over two decades of experience across leveraged finance, having most recently worked at Ares Management where he served as partner and led the building of its direct lending efforts in the US.