Contents

Capital Relief Trades

Spanish banks

SRT market update

Banco Sabadell is reportedly planning to execute a CRT on a predominantly project finance book out of Miami.

The move comes within the broader context of a takeover from rival bank BBVA. The latter is preparing a new bid after its initial €12bn hostile takeover attempt failed in the spring.

BBVA is prepping its own SRT trade, the latest in the Vela programme. The trade, referencing corporate loans, has garnered €700m worth of interest on a €127m tranche. Sources suggest investors hoping for a spread exceeding 800bps need not apply.

Caixabank also completed a transaction in June referencing mid cap corporate/SME loans. It is reportedly a new structure to the bank, and not a repeat transaction.

Joe Quiruga

ABS

Teutonic tenacity

German consumer ABS sees strong investor demand despite rising challenges

Despite rising interest rates and escalating costs of living across Europe, the consumer ABS market shows little sign of distress. Issuance levels remain robust, with investors continuing to demonstrate confidence in this sector, even as economic conditions tighten. According to Sam Lee, portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management, "there is no sign as yet of any impact on issuance levels in European consumer ABS."

Historically, unsecured consumer ABS, such as car loans and personal loans, have been more vulnerable than MBS during economic downturns. "When belts are tightened, consumers tend to prioritise mortgage payments over car finance and other loans," Lee notes. Despite this, Europe’s consumer balance sheets have fared better than expected since mid-2022, when inflation and interest rates surged.

One of the clearest examples of investor appetite in the sector came last week, with Santander’s latest German consumer ABS deal, SC Germany Consumer 2024-2 (SCI 17 October). Initially planned as a €700m offering, the deal saw overwhelming demand, leading to an increase to €1bn.

Lee highlights: "The senior mezz notes attracted the same level of interest even after the deal was increased, and the BB+ rated mezz notes had a whopping 8.9x coverage." Spreads tightened by 40-50 basis points across the mezzanine notes from initial guidance, underscoring strong market demand.

This enthusiasm persisted despite the challenges Santander has faced in Germany, including a rise in consumer default rates to levels reminiscent of the global financial crisis. Lee emphasises that "investors should remain vigilant," given the country's industrial and manufacturing struggles and poor consumer confidence.

German consumer lenders like Santander face a unique set of challenges. Higher interest rates have discouraged the best credit profiles from taking out unsecured loans, and increased competition from online brokers has weakened pricing power.

Yet, the rates charged today are comparable to those in 2015, raising questions about why Santander's platform has underperformed. "There must be more to this story," Lee observes, "especially as other German lenders have performed better in this environment."

In contrast, Santander’s consumer ABS platforms in Spain and Italy have performed more consistently. While these countries have seen some payment issues, they have not experienced the same level of deterioration as Germany. "Spanish and Italian deals are now performing better than the German platform," Lee comments, pointing to more stringent post-crisis lending criteria as a possible factor.

Despite the structural protection ABS provides to investors, Lee remains cautious about rapid tightening of spreads in the market. She warns that "the strength of the technical in European ABS has the potential to push spreads to levels that should make investors uncomfortable." This is particularly concerning for transactions where performance may continue to weaken in the current economic environment.

In light of this, Lee and her team are taking a more selective approach. "Currently, we see opportunities elsewhere in the market offering better risk-adjusted return potential," she concludes. While the ABS market’s resilience is encouraging, the need for vigilance in evaluating the fundamentals behind each deal remains paramount.

Selvaggia Cataldi

Asset-Backed Finance

Here comes the sun

Enpal passes €5bn ahead of Europe's debut public solar ABS deal

Enpal has passed another milestone, as it surpassed €5bn in renewable energy financing commitments. The announcement comes ahead of the issuing of the much anticipated €240m Enpal-originated solar ABS transaction, ABS Golden Ray 1 (SCI 23 October) – a watershed moment as it represents the first ever publicly rated European solar ABS deal. 

The German greentech firm, which has secured multiple warehouse facilities since the start of 2023, continues to pave the way for green ABS and acceleration in the continent’s energy transition (SCI 30 March 2023, SCI 20 March 2024).

The new financing commitments are backed by major investors including BlackRock, ING, Infranity and Pricoa Private Capital for lease financing, and Citi, Bank of America, Credit Agricole CIB and Barclays for consumer loans to private households.

Enpal’s newly raised funds will be used to finance the installation of more than 500,000 distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, heat pumps, electric vehicle chargers and smart meter gateways. The project is expected to contribute three gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Germany by one million tonnes every year.

The portfolio associated with the ABS Golden Ray 1 transaction, which is expected to price in week commencing 28 October, consists of 8,469 consumer amortising loans with an overall outstanding balance of €240m. The placing includes €50m in preplaced triple-A notes that benefit from a payment guarantee from the European Investment Fund. 

Enpal remains at the forefront in accelerating the energy transition in Europe without relying on government subsidies. The company’s financing model, which leverages both institutional capital and consumer loans, highlights the growing investor demand for sustainable infrastructure and climate-aligned investments. By removing the upfront costs for consumers – typically ranging between €20,000 and €40,000 per household - Enpal is aiming to enable the greater adoption of renewable energy technologies (SCI 10 October).

The announced €5bn marks further progress for Enpal, as it appears ahead of schedule to reach its target of €10bn in renewable energy financing by 2027.

Claudia Lewis

Capital Relief Trades

Ally autos

Ally Bank said in with another auto CRT

Ally Bank is in the market with another auto loan synthetic securitization in CLN format, say sources.

The arrangers are JP Morgan and Bank of America, with JP Morgan acting as structuring manager.

The reference pool is said to be US$3bn, with US$330m notes sold into the market.

Ally is selling 1.5%-12.5% of the portfolio and retaining the 1.5% first loss position.

This is divided into seven thin tranches.

The price talk for the A tranche is SOFR plus 105bp-110bp, for the B tranche SOFR plus 125bp-135bp, for the C tranche SOFR plus mid-100s, for the D tranche plus high 100s, for the E tranche mid-300s, for the F tranche mid-to-high 300s and for the G tranche mid-to-high 800s, add sources.

Ally debuted in this market earlier in the year with another auto CLN.

Simon Boughey

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: North American Issuer of the Year

Winner: JPMorgan

Project Appia, which JPMorgan closed on the final business day of 2023, represented perhaps the largest and most complex set of SRT transactions the market has yet seen. For its efforts in bringing this landmark deal to the market, JPMorgan is SCI’s North American Issuer of the Year.

The reference pool in Project Appia was huge, perhaps unprecedently so, totalling some US$22bn. The programme encompassed five separate transactions, each with different tranche thicknesses, attachment points and pricing.

It seems now that all the tranches came in south of 10%, rather than the typical North American 0%-12.5%, as was initially rumoured. Pricing was similarly idiosyncratic, but sources suggest all were “high single-digits.”

JPMorgan declined to comment for this piece.

The assets varied as well and were a mix of investment grade and high yield revolving loans, originally written from the revolver desk, not the loan desk. This meant every separate transaction had documentation that was entirely discrete and JPMorgan was obliged to negotiate with five different legal teams – one for each trade.

All trades emanated from a fully cash collateralised bankruptcy-remote SPV. The independence of the issuing entity was required to avoid the Volcker Rule and the regulatory purview as a commodity pool operator, but of course added to structuring complexity.

However, all were also entirely bilateral and customised to meet the individual needs of each buyer.

And yet all these pieces had to be put in place in an eight-week period beginning in early November, when the bank received notification that the US Federal Reserve would look kindly on the various transactions as legitimate synthetic regulatory capital trades and ending the deal when closed at the end of the following month.

These two months strained the capacity of the team at JPMorgan mightily, but it got the trades over the line. The effort was led by Charles Martino, global head of strategic and tactical structured solutions, reporting to Masi Yamada, head of global investor structuring.

Martino is responsible for the entire SRT initiative at JPMorgan, while Francois Belot, head of SRT execution, spearheaded the landmark Project Appia on the ground.

It is thought that five investors, taking one leg each, bought pieces of Project Appia, and the names of Ares, Blackstone, DE Shaw, LuminArx and PGGM were mentioned in press reports last year. However, the participation of only a couple of these shops has been confirmed.

Some of these buyers have been involved in the SRT market for a long time and have a longstanding relationship with the bank. Those who have worked with it before offered high praise of it.

“It’s a very high-quality issuer. It’s a serious organisation and willing to work with investors to achieve desired results. The bank thinks creatively about how to meet different needs of investors in a single transaction and dedicates a lot of resources to deals,” said one.

The bank had been looking at this kind of mega-deal for some seven or eight years, but it was the initial proposals in what became known as the Basel 3 Endgame (B3E) in July 2023 which concentrated minds at JPMorgan. In the original iteration of B3E, the bank was looking at an increase in capital requirements of at least 20%.

Only a very large deal – a US$22bn deal – could make any sort of meaningful dent in these obligations. For a bank with a vast balance sheet, smaller, more usual SRT deals would have no impact whatsoever; it had to go big.

Chief executive officer Jamie Dimon, who last year was outspoken in his criticism of the extra burden that was about to be placed on US banks, was fully involved in Project Appia from the outset. Indeed, it is suggested that the impetus for Project Appia emanated from the C-suite.

Since then, the Federal Reserve has rowed back from its original position and increased capital requirements will be closer to 9%. Consequently, it now seems possible that JPMorgan will not hit the market in such size again. It will, however, continue to make use of the mechanism and has several deals shaping up for 4Q24, say sources.

It sees SRT not merely as a means by which the burden of risk weighted assets can be reduced, but as a risk transfer as well. When there are multiple assets from unlisted private names on the balance sheet, the reg cap trade often represents the only hedge in the market.

It might have been thought that the market did not have the kind of capacity to absorb such a large trade. Many traditional SRT buyers have relatively limited books and, in this trade, the smallest ticket was around US$200m and the largest perhaps US$500m.

Yet JPMorgan was convinced that the demand was there. The hunger for SRT deals from private credit firms, particularly a year ago before spreads tightened so significantly, was yawning. Risk transfer deals not only offered above market returns, but private credit funds earn fees immediately rather than being obliged to wait for the ramp-up period.

Another buyer who worked with JPMorgan before also paid fulsome tribute to the skills on offer at 270 Park Avenue: “The bank has a high level of intelligence when it comes to how to use the tool. It doesn’t look at the tool as a static thing, and just roll out deals as it has always done; it looks at it dynamically to achieve what we and the bank needs.”

The belief that the demand was there, and that it possessed sufficient in-house capacity and expertise to get these deals into the market quickly and successfully, was triumphantly vindicated.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: European Arranger of the Year

Winner: UniCredit

UniCredit completed nine SRT transactions during the awards period, across four jurisdictions and five asset classes, referencing underlying portfolios totaling €13bn. For supporting eight clients, five of which were external, the bank is SCI’s pick for European Arranger of the Year.

Between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, UniCredit continued to develop innovative and efficient structures for both standardised and IRB banks. New product features added include undrawn exposures of revolving credit lines and synthetic excess spread.

Notably, the bank also continued to lead the way in Central and Eastern Europe, with the €2.15bn Project Makalu representing the largest-ever SRT for the region and the €1.66bn Project Argo the third largest. Closed in September 2023 and originated by mBank, Project Makalu was structured in the form of directly issued CLNs and offered the first opportunity for SRT investors to gain exposure to Polish retail assets. Project Argo closed in December 2023 and references a portfolio of Polish consumer loans originated by Millennium BCP.

Another highlight was the €847.4m Arts Consumer 2023, UniCredit’s second full-stack SRT deal with the EIB acting as senior and mezzanine investor. Closing in October 2023, this transaction provided support to Italian SMEs and mid-caps.

Looking ahead, UniCredit anticipates that the SRT market will continue to grow rapidly - boosted by fresh issuances from US banks, but also from new originators across Europe. Banks are turning to SRTs in areas of their business that are core and important for client relationships, but that can be inefficient uses of regulatory capital. As a result, the collateral behind SRTs is often of a high quality.

Two main drivers are guiding the growth of the SRT market, in UniCredit’s view: Basel 4 implementation that will increase the capital required for several business lines; and banks’ profitability improvement via capital velocity generated by rotating balance sheet and releasing capital. “Basel 4 has forced banks to find different solutions - not only in terms of RWA optimisation, but also to keep some business lines profitable, given the higher capital charge that will be required,” says Andrea Modolo, md at UniCredit.

He continues: “If I look back at how the market has evolved over the past years, the evolution is incredible in terms of new originators, asset classes and jurisdictions involved: if, at the beginning, SRT transactions were mainly an ‘extraordinary’ tool for the largest banks located in a few jurisdictions in Europe, nowadays it is becoming more of an ordinary tool accessible to a broader range of originators (and not anymore restricted only to the largest banks) and jurisdictions.”

Over the past years with a macro regime of lower rates, many banks increased their duration to their balance sheet to generate additional yield; with today’s higher rates, that decision has led to an up-tick in unrealised mark-to-market depreciation that makes it difficult to syndicate in the secondary market such loans without realising a loss. For banks with these assets on their books, SRTs can provide hedging, capital relief and liquidity without having to sell assets and realise losses: the capital relief can be deployed in assets generating higher yield, thereby increasing profitability for the banks.

“The trajectory of the SRT market seems pretty clear: while the instrument demonstrated in the past years the ability to transfer real risk to investors, the focus now is on its significant impact; SRTs will become more and more relevant for the profitability of banks, the velocity to redeploy capital in the real economy and hence to support the economic growth of the different countries,” Modolo observes.

He adds: “European banks have a competitive advantage when it comes to SRT transactions, given the strong experience gained over the past years. The evolution of SRTs is to focus on the future flow/new origination: banks have so far securitised their stock portfolio that requires at least 6-12 months to ramp up, but velocity is key to manage RWAs in a timely manner and to improve the profitability of banks – therefore, we expect an increase of the use of securitisation to secure capital relief of the new origination/future flow.”

Mario Draghi recently published a report focused on the Future of European Competitiveness, which clearly stated that at the moment EU banks cannot rely on securitisation to the same extent as their US counterparts, with an overall issuance in euros standing at just 0.3% of GDP (as at 2022) - while for the US, the figure was 4%. “Securitisation makes banks’ balance sheets more flexible by allowing them to transfer some risk to investors, release capital and unlock additional lending. It could also act as a substitute for lack of capital market integration by allowing banks to package non-tradeable assets to non-bank investors,” Modolo concludes. “Indeed, we truly believe that securitisation is a powerful tool for banks’ capital and funding needs; we had the pleasure of working with several clients across Europe, setting up both their inaugural SRT transactions and their funding ABS programmes. The pipeline for next year highlights a healthy market and that new originators will join the SRT market.”

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: Emerging Markets Transaction of the Year

Winner: Project Patagonia

Project Patagonia has won Emerging Markets Transaction of the Year in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards. This forward-looking transaction involves a pioneering approach in which a bank, a private investor and a multilateral development bank (MDB) partner together to: achieve capital relief for the bank, deploy resources from a leading private international investor into a new emerging markets jurisdiction for it, and  enable greater amounts of developmental activities to be undertaken by the MDB – with all three of these objectives accomplished in a financially sustainable way.

Banco Santander Chile, IFC and PGGM closed in June 2024 an innovative credit risk sharing facility which involved impactful collaboration between a Latin American bank, an MDB, as well as a private investor. The transaction will allow Banco Santander Chile to undertake increased amounts of mortgage lending to women in Chile. It also represents a new way for MDBs to grow their developmental activities with existing balance sheet resources.

The transaction references a US$500m portfolio of corporate loans to Chilean borrowers which remain on Banco Santander’s balance sheet. IFC provides full credit risk protection on US$400m of that portfolio. At the same time, PGGM offers a first loss guarantee to IFC on this US$400m amount, with IFC thereby retaining senior risk exposure towards the latter. The transaction also features a three-year replenishment period, which is rather unique – especially in such a jurisdiction.

Overall, the incorporation of SRT features into this transaction - as well as the participation of both IFC and PGGM - permit a longer-tenor risk sharing facility. This approach goes beyond what would otherwise be a conventional MDB risk sharing structure and allows the bank to maximise benefits from Project Patagonia. Furthermore, the approach enhances the positive social impact achieved through new eligible lending by the bank.

The transaction’s capital relief is achieved both at the bank’s local and group levels. Such an outcome is enabled by a long-tenor transaction structure, whereby Banco Santander Chile issues a 0%-100% tranche on an unfunded basis to IFC, and the bank therefore obtains zero-risk weighted full credit risk mitigation on a predetermined portion of a portfolio of assets. Simultaneously, PGGM offers IFC a first loss guarantee on the credit protection it has provided to Banco Santander Chile.

The capital freed up by the transaction will be reinvested by Banco Santander Chile in mortgage loans to women in Chile, who represent a financially underserved segment in the country.

By mobilising resources from a leading global SRT investor into a new emerging markets jurisdiction, this approach “crowds-in” private capital alongside an MDB investment and therefore permits IFC to undertake a larger and longer-tenor credit risk sharing facility than might otherwise be possible for it.

“The success of Project Patagonia is very much based on its collaborative nature, in which each party contributed its own expertise and played a critical role in achieving intended results,” says Luca Paonessa, senior director, credit and insurance linked investments at PGGM.

In Project Patagonia, Banco Santander Chile leveraged the risk transfer experience of Santander Group to conceptualise the transaction alongside IFC, which had undertaken previous shorter-tenor conventional credit risk sharing facilities with Banco Santander Chile, and PGGM brought its capabilities as a leading global SRT investor to a new jurisdiction.

“By mobilising private investor participation along the lines successfully undertaken here, Project Patagonia highlights an innovative way that MDBs like IFC with existing balance sheet resources can implement additional risk-sharing arrangements for emerging market banks, which in turn enables them to undertake additional developmentally impactful lending,” notes Xavier Jordan, chief investment officer responsible for capital markets in the financial institution group at IFC. “This approach could be replicated in other emerging markets – thereby enhancing the relevance of MDB risk sharing transactions to banks around the world.”

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: ESG Transaction of the Year

Winner: Lion 4

The EIB Group and LBBW closed Lion 4 in September 2023, with the latter committing to channel €350m of freed-up capital into new financing for clean power projects. In recognition of its exceptional contribution to decarbonising the German economy and to boosting Europe’s energy independence, the transaction is SCI’s pick for ESG Transaction of the Year.

The synthetic securitisation involves a guarantee on a mezzanine tranche to support LBBW’s lending in the renewable energy sector. The €3.2bn reference portfolio consists of loans to SMEs and other corporates originated by LBBW in its ordinary business. The transaction is structured with a two-year replenishment period and falls under the STS securitisation framework.

Through a retrocession agreement, LBBW undertakes to convert the additional lending capacity into a new portfolio that is at least double the size of the €175m mezzanine tranche guaranteed by the EIB (or €350m). The amount allocated under this operation is expected to result in the development of about 340MW of new electricity generation capacity from renewable sources, equivalent to the energy use of more than one million homes.

Originating loans secured by wind farms and photovoltaic plants is typically very challenging. The beneficiary companies will be in Germany, other EU Member States and Switzerland.

The EIB Group supports the ‘use of proceeds’ approach to drive investments into a sustainable economy. With innovative tools like synthetic securitisation, capital can be released from a ‘brown’ loan portfolio and be reinvested into new ‘green’ lending.

The Lion 4 synthetic securitisation operation was undertaken in line with the EIB Group’s commitment to support the REPowerEU programme.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: Innovation of the Year

Winner: Granular Portfolio Insurance Product

The Granular Portfolio Insurance Product (GPIP) has won Innovation of the Year in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards. This product is the first insurance structure of its kind and was developed by BNP Paribas (the bank), Liberty (the insurer) and Howden (the broker).

This innovation is in response to various operational limitations when using credit insurance for the bank and at a time when credit insurance is increasingly used as a method of capital relief. The GPIP has given BNP Paribas an efficient and scalable means of distribution, marking an improved and an additional tool beyond existing, traditional, single risk insurance structures. Alongside this, GPIP creates a strong platform for insurers to further transition from underwriting single assets to a batch of assets, while maintaining important structural features embedded into that market.

One of the key drivers to finding a solution was to reduce the high cost of sourcing assets eligible for insurance that comes from the extensive legal due diligence required prior to any placement. This can be on aspects like confidentiality and prior consent limitations on each loan facility, which can impact insurability, and the outcome of this due diligence often results in less than 50% of target assets being eligible for insurance and materially impacts the efficiency of sourcing assets.

Insurers on a single risk basis traditionally require receipt of a comprehensive information package on each asset or facility too, which places another heavy burden on the bank in terms of time and resource. Historically, this has meant the bank would exclude granular assets that were too small in exposure (or RWA savings), as the cost of sourcing eligible assets versus the capital benefit derived from insurance was too high.

BNP Paribas, Liberty and Howden worked together to deliver a product that addressed these constraints while also ensuring critical requirements for both the bank and the insurer were met.

The ability to build the right portfolio with the right asset mix was key to meet the insurer’s needs in terms of concentrations and premium. For the bank, important criteria included pari-passu and ground-up coverage under one unified policy, thereby consolidating all the insured limits within the portfolio. A single policy means much more efficient post-inception policy management for all parties.

The policy tenor matched the maturity of the underlying assets, in order to be compliant as an eligible credit risk mitigant, with premium based on actual exposure of the insured portfolio rather than on each and every insured facility, thereby optimising premium management.

To alleviate the legal due diligence normally required, disclosure of obligors was limited to those critical to insurers, with unique arrangements for ongoing disclosure drafted into the policy, as well as other changes to typical single risk policy features that blended infrastructure from other types of portfolio risk transfer trades while simultaneously allowing the use of multiple distribution challenges (e.g., securitisation and insurance). This optionality for BNP Paribas significantly improves its ability to dynamically manage RWA of any given asset.

The insurer used its capabilities in portfolio modelling, structuring and analysis to: overcome the challenges that arose in the requirements of the transaction; achieve a more attractive premium; and apply meaningful capital against the portfolio. The insurer also benefitted from access to high quality, investment grade granular assets, filtered through stringent eligibility and concentration criteria.

Howden facilitated the balance between the needs of the insurer and the bank to close this inaugural deal for the industry.

In summary, this new hybrid product integrates the strengths of insurance with certain securitisation features when structuring the portfolio. This allows BNP Paribas to open up credit insurance to new portfolios of granular assets not normally accessible under a traditional single risk approach requiring an asset-by-asset review. The product can also be used in parallel with other distribution channels, thereby maximising the capital relief achievable on a given asset mobilised for distribution.

Thomas Alamalhoda, head of resource and portfolio management at BNP Paribas, comments: “The co-design of the GPIP is the result of a solid historical partnership, whereby portfolio approach and optimisation features bring efficiency and growth on both sides.”

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: Investor of the Year

Winner: Magnetar

The 2023/2024 awards year marks a period of transformative growth in the significant risk transfer (SRT) market. Amid a dynamic landscape characterised by new issuers, growth in the US SRT market and an influx of new investors, Magnetar distinguished itself with historically high investment volumes across varied deal structures and underlying asset classes and a commitment to thought leadership.

Throughout the awards period, Magnetar executed 12 transactions totaling US$724m across seven asset classes - large and mid-cap corporates, SMEs, consumers, trade finance, CRE and project finance. These investments delivered on Magnetar’s long-standing SRT investment strategy of constructing and maintaining a multi-asset class portfolio to provide diversification and attractive risk-adjusted IRRs to investors. Magnetar served as a trusted execution partner to nine financial institutions in eight countries over the year, a testament to the firm’s strong and diverse institutional relationships within the SRT ecosystem.

Central to Magnetar’s success in 2023/2024 was its continued focus on acting as sole or anchor investor in innovative transactions, across new asset classes, countries and structures. These included two synthetic consumer deals in first-time jurisdictions, with highly customised terms for a high-velocity, short-term receivables execution of a bespoke US SRT deal on a multi-family housing portfolio and helping its investment partners advance commitments to sustainable investing through a predominantly renewable energy project finance transaction.  These transactions marked departures from traditional SRT approaches in different ways, with each underscoring the firm’s flexible investment approach and ability to innovate to provide new solutions for its bank partners.

“In a year marked by pronounced increases in both the supply of SRT transactions and demand from new entrants to the market, Magnetar’s diverse investment approach successfully navigated the SRT ecosystem to deliver value to both our transaction partners and our investors,” says Alan Shaffran, senior portfolio manager and partner at Magnetar.

He continues: “Despite a market whose hype attracted scores of new entrants competing for certain transactions, we maintained our core focus on sourcing transactions with appropriate and sometimes uncommon relative value. This meant evaluating the full investment profile with a focus on creative structural solutions and strenuous underwriting, paying close attention to stress scenarios. This focus on downside protection has been proven over Magnetar’s 16-year SRT investment history to produce durable returns through the cycle.” 

Magnetar’s depth of expertise across structuring of transactions to meet bank needs, experience in multiple asset classes and a systematic approach to underwriting was crucial in navigating deal complexity throughout the year.

“Our long history of investing in multiple asset classes and jurisdictions, combined with a mature and systematic underwriting approach was key to developing the requisite conviction in our investments. And our approach of providing comprehensive, transparent and timely feedback to our bank partners has built a reputation as a trusted and long-term execution partner,” says Aidan McKeown, portfolio manager at Magnetar.

Magnetar’s SRT business is further strengthened by its integration within Magnetar’s broader alternative credit and fixed income platform, which is highly diversified across asset classes and investment types. This allows Magnetar to leverage extensive specialist asset class experience, accumulated data and robust infrastructure developed over years, all while fostering a collaborative approach across business lines. It also enables Magnetar to source and underwrite a wide array of transactions and maintain a consistently diverse portfolio of SRT transactions.

Beyond transactional successes, Magnetar has been at the forefront of thought leadership within the SRT ecosystem, including educating the LP universe on the market through the publication of detailed whitepapers and educational sessions, as well as participation in industry forums – including IMN, SBAI, the PCS Symposia and prime broker events.

Looking ahead, Magnetar remains committed to expanding its SRT presence globally and refining its investment strategies. The launch of "Magnetar Labs", an internal initiative of the firm, is a testament to Magnetar’s commitment to data-driven decision-making, harnessing AI and machine learning to enhance analytical capabilities. Leveraging its strong track record and deep expertise, the firm is poised to help continue driving the evolution of the SRT market.

"As we continue to expand our geographic reach and refine our SRT strategies, we remain focused on leading the industry into new frontiers of growth and opportunity,” says David Snyderman, managing partner at Magnetar.

Honourable Mention: ArrowMark Partners
As one of the largest and longest tenured investors in the SRT market, with US$8.5bn of investment in 109 transactions since 2010, ArrowMark Partners understands the importance of being a consistent partner to global banks while maintaining the flexibility to evolve with the market and opportunity set. The firm’s activity over the last year demonstrated its continued ability to balance these dual objectives and reinforced its positioning at the forefront of the industry.

Co-led by Kaelyn Abrell and David Corkins since inception of the strategy 14 years ago, the ArrowMark team is comprised of 10 individuals working out of the firm’s Denver and London offices. In addition to the insights and expertise from 14 years of investment, the firm benefits from almost half of the team’s prior experience working at issuing banks. Collectively, the team’s expertise spans all major collateral types, issuing geographies and regulatory frameworks.

The diversity of the team’s experience contributes to ArrowMark’s ability to offer advisory and structuring expertise to existing or new issuers. During ArrowMark’s time in the asset class, it has helped create new SRT platforms, most recently with a major Spanish bank, and developed innovative structures for the US transactions that have enabled banks to maintain access to the market in a variety of market conditions and/or improve the efficiency of the issuance process.

Milestones achieved during the 12 months ending on 30 June 2024 reflect the success of ArrowMark’s approach. During the period, the team deployed US$1.5bn across 16 new issue transactions, including a mix of syndication types – bilateral, club, syndicated – and spanning collateral types – large corporate, SME and trade finance, among others.

The firm added two new issuer relationships, one each in Europe and the US. The firm’s historical investments span 19 issuing banks across the major issuing geographies – Europe, the UK, the US and Canada – and 40 lending platforms.

Finally, as it relates to fundraising, ArrowMark launched the fifth vintage of its SRT-dedicated commingled fund series in autumn 2023. The fund will invest alongside a core group of semi-permanent fund vehicles managed by ArrowMark that are similarly dedicated to the asset class.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: (Re)insurer of the Year

Winner: RenaissanceRe

Over the company’s 30-year history, RenaissanceRe has evolved from a property catastrophe reinsurer to a multiline, global reinsurer with access to the best casualty, specialty, credit and property risks. Last year, the company acquired Validus Re from AIG, bringing together two highly skilled underwriting teams and enhancing RenaissanceRe’s scale and offerings.

RenaissanceRe’s credit business is an important contributor to the company’s success and diversification, and the team’s value proposition as an innovative, expert, cross-class underwriter within the three pillars of the company’s credit business – structured credit, mortgage credit and credit, bond and political risk – has helped them solidify its market position. With 21 employees in five geographies and a credit portfolio of over US$550m gross premiums written in the first six months of 2024, the company has one of the largest credit operations in the reinsurance space.

RJ Shea, global head of credit for RenaissanceRe, attributes both partnership and the team’s willingness to explore innovation as key reasons for its success. “We operate in a very collaborative environment, and our team has proven experience providing effective structures to clients who are considering new and innovative risk transfer programmes. We partner with our clients through market cycles, taking a long-term view of the risks we assume and working closely with clients to ensure that we’re delivering the solutions they need beyond the here and now.”  

Working primarily with insurance companies (both diversified and monoline), banks and government agencies across the globe, RenaissanceRe’s credit team has demonstrated increasing leadership in the structured credit space through its distinctive approach to problem-solving.

In 2024, RenaissanceRe continued to grow its structured credit franchise with both a geographically diverse and an asset-class diverse portfolio, completing transactions referencing, but not limited to, large corporate loans, SME loans, real estate loans and fund financing. The company writes equity, junior mezzanine and senior mezzanine layers as it seeks to create a unique risk profile for its portfolio. Beyond SRT and always in the spirit of partnership, it has provided bank clients with credit risk protection on capital-intensive portfolios, “matching desirable risk with efficient capital”, as Shea notes.

RenaissanceRe continues to play an active role in the development of the unfunded SRT market, extending beyond its direct business with banks. As Mehdi Benleulmi, head of structured credit for RenaissanceRe and head of the company’s European credit business, notes: “Through thoughtfully structured credit risk transfer transactions, we assume risk on an unfunded basis as an alternative, or complement, to cash market participants. We believe that the unfunded market is where we add the most value to the overall SRT market and where we can achieve sustainable growth for our portfolio.”

The company also actively engages with industry stakeholders in this space, both directly and through industry groups such as the ICISA and IACPM, discussing key topics including the potential for an STS label for unfunded participants. “Our view remains that diversified and regulated (re)insurance companies, with strong balance sheets like ours, should be eligible to provide protection on STS transactions,” Benleulmi observes.

In the US structured credit space, RenaissanceRe is a leader in both the US Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) credit risk transfer spaces. In 2023, the company brought third-party capital into the CRT reinsurance space for the first time. This first-of-its-kind transaction created an avenue for cash investors to access CRT reinsurance transactions, providing cash investors with cost-effective turns of leverage, while eliminating the need to mark-to-market these trades.

“Our unique approach provides clients with significant gross line sizes on a bilateral basis and provides us with fee income via our market-leading access to risk,” Benleulmi concludes. “It’s a win-win.”

Honourable Mention: Arch Insurance (EU) DAC
Arch has significantly increased its presence in the European SRT market over the last number of years, becoming a market leader in unfunded SRT execution. The firm has invested in its team, been an industry voice for unfunded SRT and provided execution certainty to our clients, which has led to a marked expansion of the unfunded SRT market.

Arch wrote its first unfunded mortgage trade in 2018. Since then, the firm has expanded into multiple EU and non-EU geographies and invested in trades across a broad range of asset classes. Indeed, its insured book has grown considerably and the firm is currently the largest insurer of unfunded mortgage SRT in Europe.

Arch has established direct relationships with Europe’s leading banks since it opened its European Mortgage Insurance office in 2012. Many of the transactions the firm has written in recent years are repeat trades with banks it has established an existing partnership with. Building a strong network of trusted counterparties is critical to its success in the SRT arena.

Arch sees a growing demand for SRT transactions from both IRB and SA approach banks and has concluded transactions across both regulatory approaches. Many SA approach banks are often first-time issuers and the firm works closely with these institutions to find a structure and portfolio which makes economic sense for both parties.

Arch has broken ground in 2023-2024 by writing trades in new geographies which do not have a history of private sector unfunded SRT. The firm is committed to growing its SRT presence across Europe and has invested heavily in its team to ensure it has the in-house capability to review and underwrite SRT transactions. Arch is a long-term investors in this sector and views SRT as a core part of its business.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: European Issuer of the Year

Winner: BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas issued an eye-watering 12 SRT transactions referencing €26.3bn of exposures across six asset classes during the awards period, including via the launch of three new European programmes. For continuing to push the boundaries and expand its SRT franchise, the bank is SCI’s pick for European Issuer of the Year.  

Between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, BNP Paribas placed €1.46bn of first or second loss tranches with over 20 investors, as well as €1.5bn of full-stack notes in the public ABS market. During this period, the bank closed its first deal referencing leveraged finance assets booked in BNP Paribas Fortis (€530m Project Harewood 2), its first French mid-cap leveraged finance deal (€1.12bn Project Hanovre, for BNP Paribas - Banque Commerciale en France (BCEF)) and an inaugural emerging markets transaction for its Polish subsidiary BNP Paribas Polska (PLN2.18bn Mazurka).

Harewood 2, which closed in September 2023, features CLNs issued directly from BNP Paribas Fortis’ balance sheet and references a fully disclosed portfolio of drawn and undrawn sponsor-led LBO facilities. An €85m mezzanine tranche (3.5%-19.5%) was placed with investors.

Meanwhile, the €1.96bn Marianne trade - referencing both French large corporate and SME loans originated by BCEF - marked the first issuance from a new BNP Paribas programme during the awards period. The bank transferred the credit risk on a 0.80%-5.20% mezzanine tranche via the issuance of CLNs in September 2023.

Mazurka, which closed in March 2024, marked the launch of the bank’s second new programme during the period. The transaction also represents BNP Paribas’ second with the IFC and involved the placement of a PLN218m mezz tranche (1%-11%), referencing a portfolio of Polish corporate loans. The capital freed up by the trade was used to finance climate change mitigation projects, focusing on renewable energy, energy efficiency and green projects.

BNP Paribas also closed Project Hanovre – its third new programme – in March 2024, purchasing credit protection on a 4%-16% mezzanine tranche via the issuance of CLNs worth €134m. The €1.12bn reference pool comprises drawn and undrawn French LBO loan exposures, with an average rating of double-B.

Although investors generally require extensive disclosure on LBO financing, the portfolio had to be blind, given the complexity of disclosures under French banking secrecy law for such assets. Considering the blind nature of the portfolio, a large syndication wasn’t feasible, so the deal was placed bilaterally with an investor able to bid for the entire mezz tranche. Notably, the investor was new to the BNP Paribas platform.

The bank’s objectives during the awards period were to continue opening up more asset classes as part of its capital management toolkit, onboard new entities of the Group onto its SRT platform and increase its distribution footprint to ensure solutions are available for different asset classes at different times of the year. This has been made possible by the group-wide mandate and skillset of the securitised products team, as well as placing distribution at the heart of its SRT strategy. By positioning each transaction with a unique set of investors to ensure capacity, BNP Paribas continues to demonstrate that it can execute difficult trades in difficult market conditions.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

Milestone deal

IDB Invest lays off risk to private investors

IDB Invest – the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group's private sector institution – has completed a US$1bn securitization for private sector investors to buy multilateral development bank (MDB) assets from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The transaction follows IDB Invest’s new originate to share business model, connecting development assets with global investors to scale impact in Latin America and the Caribbean. Such innovative financial structure seeks to create a new MDB asset class for international investors.

In terms of structure, the transaction (entitled Scaling4Impact) securitises US$1bn of IDB Invest’s portfolio, creating a tranched structure with an US$870m senior tranche; a US$100m mezzanine tranche a portion of which was sold to international investor Newmarket Capital, the remainder insured by AXIS and AXA (senior mezzanine); and a US$30m first loss tranche retained by IDB Invest

The securitised portfolio includes assets from 20 countries and 10 sectors, such as corporates, infrastructure, energy and financial institutions. The transaction will free up capital, creating up to half a billion in additional lending capacity for new development projects.

Alternative asset manager Newmarket Capital, which was founded in 2020 by veterans of the hedge fund Mariner Investment Group, led a similar deal with the African Development Bank in 2018.

Earlier this year, the IDB had completed a risk-transfer transaction using credit-insurance protection with private insurance companies to help diversify its portfolio and free up capital for additional lending to Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Vincent Nadeau

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: North American Arranger of the Year

Winner: BMO

As last year’s North American Issuer of the Year, Bank of Montreal (BMO) has set a high bar for itself. Thanks to a series of key issuances across multiple SRT platforms, the bank has continued its impressive run this year. As such, with its dedicated team of risk transfer experts, a mix of asset classes and experience in this growing segment, BMO is SCI’s North American Arranger of the Year.

While many players have entered the SRT space in the last couple of years, BMO launched its first SRT platform in 2016. The bank now boasts seven platforms – Algonquin, Boreal, Killarney, Muskoka, Sauble, Taiga and the newly established Quetico - and has completed 25 transactions to date, making BMO the largest SRT issuer in North America and a prolific arranger. And, as new investors continue to enter the market, this experience has put BMO in a prime position to continue setting the pace.

A key enabler of this success is BMO’s dedicated SRT group. “We have a world-beating team here,” says Jamie Payne, md and head of BMO Capital Market’s risk and capital solutions group. “We have a team of 10 experts, who work exclusively on SRT transactions, and that supports the growth we’ve had.”

BMO has also made significant investments in the tools necessary to support both the bank’s requirements and the demands of its investors. “As you grow to the number of active transactions and the number of platforms that we have, you need the systems and capabilities to be able to keep up with that,” Payne says. “We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into building our internal infrastructure to make sure we can support the size of the platform we have.”

And, as the needs of the bank or investors change, Payne says BMO’s systems are built to be flexible. “Having different tools to address different constraints in different ways over the life of a trade is important,” he says.

BMO’s big SRT wins during the 2023/2024 awards period include Algonquin 2023-1, the seventh issuance from the Algonquin platform; Quetico I, the inaugural transaction from the bank’s new US sponsor finance platform; and Boreal 2024-1, the fourth successful transaction on that platform. Given BMO’s established position in the market, as well as the people and the tools it has on hand, such strong performance can be expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

As Payne explains: “The diversity of asset classes we can access, the processes we have in place to be able to trade efficiently and the ability to support the number of transactions we do with the size of team we have, all of that contributes to our success.”

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

SCI CRT Awards: European Law Firm of the Year

Winner: Clifford Chance

In Europe, Clifford Chance continues to act for the originator bank as structuring and drafting counsel on the majority of CRT transactions in the market. It is in this role as structuring and drafting counsel that the firm has set the standard that the rest of the market follows. 

As has been the case now for many years, Clifford Chance remains the only law firm that has partners whose practice is primarily focused on CRT transactions. Jessica Littlewood and Timothy Cleary in London are, by a large margin, the leading lawyers in this market and between them act for almost every bank active in the European, Asian and Canadian markets.

Clifford Chance has by far the largest number of lawyers with expertise in CRT transactions. The firm has a deep bench, with 19 lawyers in London alone whose main practice is CRT transactions.

Clifford Chance also has a strong CRT practice in Frankfurt, as well as the only domestic CRT practice in Spain. The team is boosted by other lawyers in France, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland, all of whom have extensive experience in CRT transactions. 

In recent years, the Polish CRT market has grown rapidly after the inaugural transaction involving private investors closed in March 2022, and Clifford Chance has acted as structuring and drafting counsel on all of these private sector transactions. Two other Polish issuers are currently working on their inaugural CRT transactions, with Clifford Chance again acting as structuring and drafting counsel.

This is a continuation of a common theme from previous years, such as when Clifford Chance led the charge when the Greek CRT market opened and when the firm acted on the inaugural CRT transactions by US regional issuers, as well as acting for repeat issuers and financial intermediaries on numerous transactions over the same period.

Similarly, as insurers have continued to grow in importance as protection providers in the CRT market, it is Clifford Chance documentation which has emerged as the market standard for such transactions. It is also the case that, in those rare cases where Clifford Chance is not acting as drafting counsel, the drafting counsel nevertheless chose to use Clifford Chance documents as the starting point rather than their own templates. The reality is, whatever the structure or asset class, it is to Clifford Chance documents that other market participants look to, both legal and commercial, for their inspiration.  

In the last year, Clifford Chance has been at the forefront of CRT transactions with an ESG focus. For instance, Project Bocarte, a CRT transaction with ESG-linked coupon step-down incentives, won SCI's award for ‘Impact Deal of the Year’ last year.

This has continued, with Clifford Chance London acting as drafting counsel for IFC in respect of a recent CRT transaction in the form of an unfunded guarantee to Banco Santander Brail. The project aims to expand access to climate finance, with Santander being required to redeploy capital savings to increase its climate finance portfolio. This transaction was the first of its kind in Brazil, as Brazil's Central Bank only recently amended the local regulation to allow banks to use synthetic securitisations for regulatory capital optimisation.             

Clifford Chance has also been at the forefront of developments in the legal structures. For example, it was the first law firm to document European CRT transactions in the form of credit-linked notes issued directly off the originator bank's own balance sheet (at a time when everyone else was still using SPV issuers without considering whether that was the most appropriate structure for a given transaction), including devising collateral structures to address the resulting counterparty credit risk associated with such direct issuance structures.

In the last year, Clifford Chance has seen a growth of "ramp-up" structures, which allow issuers to increase the size of the underlying reference portfolio, with investors being obliged to pay for further notes as the portfolio is ramped-up. These structures increase the efficiency of a transaction from a bank's perspective, as they mean that the bank is not paying for protection it is not yet using. Again, Clifford Chance originally coined this structure and is to date still the only law firm that has drafted the documents for such CRT issuances.

Clifford Chance has also led the way in innovations that increase the speed of execution and decrease transaction costs for issuers. In particular, the firm has put in place CLN programmes that are used by all of the major UK issuers of CRT transactions. These programmes reduce the documentation required for each transaction to a single set of final terms for each issuance, resulting in more efficient negotiations and lower legal fees.

For the full list of winners and honourable mentions in this year’s SCI Capital Relief Trades Awards, click here.

Capital Relief Trades

Fannie CIRT

Last CIRT of 2024 comes with structural improvements

Fannie Mae has completed its seventh and final Credit Risk Insurance Transfer (CIRT) deal of 2024, transferring US$338.6m of mortgage exposure to 26 insurers and reinsurers, the GSE announced today (October 25).

The covered loan pool of CIRT 2024-L4 comprises around 24,000 single family mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of US$7.9bn. All the loans have a low LTV of between 60% and 80% and were acquired between September and December 2023.

Fannie Mae retains the first 170bp of loss, and if this US133.9m retention layer is exhausted the 26 insurers will cover the next 430bp of loss up to a maximum of US$338.6m.

This transaction is the first CIRT deal to incorporate recent structural enhancements, which mean that insurance coverage will be released more quickly than before if the covered loan pool performs well. Moreover, the insurance premium will then be based on the remaining coverage rather the outstanding balance of the pool.

These improvements are designed to make the CIRT programme make look more attractive to a greater range of insurance and reinsurance firms, and reflect the increasing importance of reinsurance as a credit risk transfer tool for the GSEs.

Simon Boughey

Capital Relief Trades

Optimisation optimism

SRT activity set to soar as banks adjust to Basel 4

Panellists at SCI’s 10th Annual Capital Relief Trades Seminar in London last week widely agreed that banks are set to ramp up their use of SRT transactions to optimise balance sheets and improve capital efficiency ahead of sweeping regulatory changes under Basel 4.

"I expect further growth in SRTs as banks adjust to Basel 4, using these transactions to navigate capital efficiency challenges and optimise their balance sheets,” said Nimesh Verma, md at Man Group.

As Verma noted during a panel, SRT transactions aim to "reduce capital requirements and achieve RWA relief efficiently, while also helping banks de-risk specific portfolios and manage lending limits."

The introduction of Basel 4’s output floor poses new challenges for banks, capping the benefits they can gain from using internal models and reducing the sensitivity of risk assessments. “We’ll see a shift toward the lowest-risk assets, particularly those where there's a gap between regulatory capital and actual risk,” explained Verma.

He highlighted high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages and collateralised loans – currently offering attractive capital relief – as likely candidates for increased SRT activity. “These assets, with disproportionately high capital charges, will become increasingly relevant for SRTs as banks seek to optimise capital and alleviate balance sheet pressure,” said Verma.

Panellists also pointed to a growing trend: banks are referencing a wider array of assets in SRT transactions to mitigate the impacts of imminent regulatory changes. "SRT usage is growing across more asset classes, but the core focus remains on corporate lending portfolios - large corporates, SMEs and leveraged finance," said Verma. He also emphasised that under Basel 4’s output floor, retail lending could become more attractive for SRTs, especially for portfolios with high-quality borrowers where the floor can significantly increase capital requirements.

Similarly, CRE and specialised finance could also see significant growth in SRT activity, particularly at the lower-risk end – segments that were previously less suited for SRTs. As the output floor takes effect, these assets are expected to become more appealing for banks to offload.

On the other hand, however, some assets that are currently assigned higher risk weights could become less attractive for capital relief through SRTs, leading to a shift in the composition of SRT portfolios. “The introduction of the output floor will reduce the risk sensitivity of regulatory capital requirements,” noted Verma. He explained that new model constraints - such as those surrounding loss given default (LGD) and collateral recognition - will heavily impact certain asset classes.

Looking ahead, panellists anticipated an increase in the issuance of senior mezzanine tranches, alongside a growing use of external ratings to streamline transactions and boost marketability. Despite a positive outlook for SRT activity in the coming months, they voiced concerns over the growing standardisation of risk assessments under the new regulatory framework. They warned that this shift could limit flexibility and introduce systemic risks, urging regulators to address these emerging challenges and provide clarity as soon as possible.

Marta Canini

Structured Finance

Job swaps weekly: Kirkland names two new partners

People moves and key promotions in securitisation

This week’s roundup of securitisation job swaps sees Kirkland & Ellis hiring two partners for its structured finance and structured private credit practice. Elsewhere, NPL Markets has made two senior appointments to its team, while Piper Sandler has named a new head of structured products trading.

Kirkland & Ellis has hired Jared Axelrod and Suril Patel as partners in its structured finance and structured private credit practice, within the firm's debt finance group. 

Axelrod leaves his role as partner at Milbank after six years with the firm. He previously worked at Dechert, Ashurst and JPMorgan. Based in New York, Axelrod will lead the build out of Kirkland & Ellis's global CLO practice. His experience spans a variety of CLO transaction types, in addition to private credit securitisations, rated note feeders and insurance solution products.

Patel, who will be based in the firm's London office, has a background in EU risk retention and London-market CLOs. He focuses on a broad range of structured finance transactions including securitisations, structured private credit and other complex financing structures. Patel leaves his role as an advisor at legal AI company Harvey after a year and four months with the business. Prior to this, he spent eight and a half years at Allen & Overy, which followed spells at BNP Paribas, Norton Rose Fulbright and JPMorgan.

Meanwhile, NPL Markets has appointed Alessio Pignataro as chief business officer and Michael Ladurner as senior advisor. 

With 20 years of experience in the structured finance market, Pignataro will play a key role in expanding the firm’s geographic footprint and business offerings. Pignataro previously worked in Alvarez & Marsal’s portfolio advisory group, which he joined in November 2022, having served at Morningstar DBRS, UBS and Societe Generale before that.

Ladurner has two decades of experience in the financial services sector, holding key roles as an investment banker, investor, cfo and board member. His career includes advising European financial institutions at Bank of America and leading strategic roles at Intrum, where he served as group cfo.

Piper Sandler has appointed Brian Vescio as head of structured products trading in New York. Vescio returns to the firm’s fixed income team as an md after leading its non-agency mortgage and ABS efforts following its merger with Sandler O’Neill until his departure to join StoneX Group, from where he joins, to serve as head of structured credit in 2020.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has promoted Ray Gu to director, credit, capital markets, based in Toronto. Previously a principal at the organisation, Gu is strategy lead in SRT, convertible bonds and Asia credit. Before that, he worked at Bosera Asset Management Co and Bank of China.

Nordic Trustee has poached senior transaction manager, Aric Kay-Russell, from GLAS in London. He joins Nordic Trustee after six years of service at GLAS. Russell has previously held senior positions at BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank.

Income Asset Management has named Tony Perkins as head of structured and asset-backed securities, based in Melbourne. He was previously partner - corporate advisory at Prime Financial Group, focusing on ABS and warehouse execution. He began his career at UBS in 1986, rising to become executive director, head of asset-backed finance at the bank.

Winston & Strawn has hired James Saeli as tax partner to support its transactions department in New York. A real estate finance specialist, Saeli holds expertise across the MBS universe including a special focus on real estate investment conduits. His background in advising federal income tax guidance includes stints at major law firms including most recently Hunton Andrews Kurth where he was promoted to counsel in 2021.

And finally, Ropes & Gray has recruited Dima Orendarets to serve as counsel in its private equity real estate practice in London. Orendarets holds expertise across real estate and structured finance, with a particular focus on private CMBS and warehousing deals, and is also the co-founder of financial market forecasting platform, Solex.ai. He joins from Clifford Chance where he started in 2017 and was promoted to director of real estate finance in 2022.

Claudia Lewis, Corinne Smith, Kenny Wastell