ABS

  • WACC guidance weighs on water ratings

    S&P notes that new regulatory guidance could bring rating stress for UK water utilities. Water sector regulator Ofwat recently offered new lower guidance on allowed weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) for the 2015-2020 regulatory period, which is expected to impact utilities' business plans by eroding cashflows. Some companies may therefore rework their plans to include mitigating measures.

    To encourage competition .......

    News Round-up 10 February 2014

  • Stable outlook for Canadian SF

    S&P expects Canadian consumer ABS credit ratings to remain stable in 2014, despite the likelihood of moderate deterioration in underlying collateral performance. The agency believes that new issuers will balance the lack of upcoming maturities from existing ABS issuers, with total issuance volume remaining at around C$11.5bn - split among credit card ABS (C$6bn), auto and equipment ABS (C$2bn), CMBS .......

    News Round-up 10 February 2014

  • UK debt firms to combine

    Cabot Credit Management (CCM) has agreed to acquire Marlin Financial Group for £295m. The acquisition combines CCM's consumer debt expertise with Marlin's specialised debt buying capabilities.

    Combining the firms' core strengths, CCM and Marlin will expand their ability to grow revenues across a range of debt types. The combined company also expects to create further operational efficiencies by applying industry .......

    Job Swaps 10 February 2014

  • RFC issued on Canadian ABCP

    The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has published for comment proposed amendments relating to the short-term debt prospectus exemption in its 'National Instrument 45-106 Prospectus and Registration Exemptions' rule. The proposals include: a new prospectus exemption designed to address the prospectus-exempt distribution of short-term securitised products, primarily ABCP; and amendments to the short-term debt prospectus exemption to address the prospectus-exempt distribution .......

    News Round-up 7 February 2014

  • ABS supply picks up

    US ABS BWIC volume picked up yesterday to around US$184m, with supply mainly driven by auto names. However, SCI's PriceABS data also captured a variety of aircraft, credit card, equipment and student loan tranches out for the bid.

    Much of the supply came from auto tranches such as AMCAR 2012-4 D, which was talked in the 90 area. .......

    Market Reports 5 February 2014

  • Captive autos outperform in Europe

    European captive auto loan ABS collateral strongly outperforms non-captive collateral, according to DBRS. Four years after origination, average captive auto ABS arrears over 60 days are at 1%, compared to 5.6% for non-captive transactions.

    The difference in performance is due to factors such as region, vintage, loan seasoning, underwriting and structure. Captive issuers also have a strong advantage at the .......

    News Round-up 5 February 2014

  • Aircastle redemption offers upside

    In a move that surprised the market, Aircastle is set to prepay the senior notes of the ACST 2006-1 aircraft ABS on 18 February. The ACST 2007-1 G1 securities rallied as a result, rising from the low- to mid-90s to the mid- to high-90s.

    The deal was callable at any time by the issuer. Since it had not been refinanced .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Strong fundamentals seen in equipment ABS

    Lessons learned from the last two broader economic recessions leave US equipment ABS well-positioned to weather future economic downturns, Fitch says. This is in stark contrast to the elevated delinquency and loss levels that small-ticket equipment ABS suffered during the 2000/2001 recession.

    Fitch's analysis shows that equipment ABS weathered the most recent downturn reasonably well. Part of the reason for .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • South African SF to remain 'resilient'

    Fitch predicts that the performance of assets backing South African structured finance will be resilient in 2014 amid a stalling domestic economy. The agency consequently expects the South African structured finance transactions it rates to perform within base-case assumptions.

    Borrowers continue to benefit from a low interest rate environment, which has helped offset lacklustre growth in the country and aid .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Sukuk industry poised for growth

    Long-term prospects for the sukuk industry remain promising, according to S&P. The agency notes that regulators continue to build and strengthen their frameworks to minimise barriers in the market and deepen liquidity.

    "After a slowdown in 2013, with sukuk volumes declining by 13%, we anticipate that the sukuk industry will expand again in 2014 - partly driven by corporate and .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Reg AB vote postponed

    The US SEC has decided to delay the vote on Regulation AB 2, which had been planned for tomorrow's open meeting (SCI 31 January). It is expected to be a temporary postponement and a separate notice will be issued when the item is rescheduled for Commission consideration.

    Separately, 13 senators have sent the SEC a letter in connection with purported .......

    News Round-up 4 February 2014

  • Reducing variation

    Valuation standards on the cards

    The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) is establishing a cross-industry taskforce to develop principles of best practice for the valuation of financial instruments. The move has been welcomed as a step towards increasing transparency and reducing variation in values.

    The IVSC has been setting valuation standards many years, but the organisation's technical director Chris Thorne says it's clear that concern .......

    News Analysis 3 February 2014

  • Positive outlook for LatAm securitisation

    Prospects for the Latin American structured finance markets in 2014 are good, according to S&P. In particular, the agency expects demand among Mexican issuers and Brazilian investors to create new opportunities for dynamic securitisation structures.

    A rebounding Mexican economy is likely to increase funding needs for local issuers, while an anticipated slowdown in the Brazilian economy may spur investor demand .......

    News Round-up 31 January 2014

  • Reg AB 2 vote scheduled

    The US SEC is to hold an open meeting on 5 February to discuss, among other topics, Regulation AB 2. Specifically, the Commission will consider whether to adopt rules revising the disclosure, reporting and offering process for ABS.

    The revisions would require asset-backed issuers to provide enhanced disclosures, including information for certain asset classes about each asset in the underlying .......

    News Round-up 31 January 2014

  • EU prop trading rules proposed

    The European Commission has proposed rules to prevent large banks from engaging in proprietary trading. The rules would also give supervisors the power to require those banks to separate certain potentially risky trading activities from their deposit-taking business if the pursuit of such activities compromises financial stability. Alongside this proposal, the Commission has adopted accompanying measures aimed at increasing the .......

    News Round-up 30 January 2014

  • State-sponsored cat bonds proliferate

    Fitch expects continued growth in catastrophe bonds from state- and government-sponsored insurance organisations this year. The agency reports that investor demand remains considerable, while the cost of sponsoring a cat bond has continued to converge with the cost of ceding risk to the traditional reinsurance markets.

    The cat bond market has seen a significant influx of deals from repeat sponsors, .......

    News Round-up 30 January 2014

  • Trepp invests in solar analysis platform

    Solar energy investment analysis and decision making platform Mercatus has closed its Series A round of financing. Trepp has joined Vision Ridge Partners, Augment Ventures and Shah Capital in investing in the company and Trepp coo Dan Gottlieb will also join Mercatus' board.

    Mercatus allows lenders and capital market investors to harness the strength of its investment analysis and analytics .......

    Job Swaps 29 January 2014

  • Vitality Re deals scrutinised

    Moody's says it views the risk and required capital reduction from Aetna's medical benefit claims transactions as "quite modest and temporary". The comment comes after its latest Vitality Re V catastrophe bond - the US$200m five-year series 2014-1 - completed last week.

    Each transaction provides collateralised excess of loss reinsurance coverage limited to the principal amount of the notes issued .......

    News Round-up 29 January 2014

  • Open-source modelling framework unveiled

    An open, independent natural catastrophe loss modelling platform has launched after two years in development. Dubbed Oasis Loss Modelling Framework, the offering is owned by 21 insurers, reinsurers and brokers, but is open to anyone with an interest in creating new catastrophe risk models.

    Oasis is not-for-profit and aims to bring down the costs of modelling, as well as providing .......

    News Round-up 29 January 2014

  • CIR RFC issued

    Moody's has published a request for comment seeking feedback on proposed changes to its methodology for assigning counterparty instrument ratings (CIRs). The agency is proposing to change how it assesses the effect of counterparty linkage on swap CIRs in order to conform to its cross-sector rating methodology on assessing swap counterparties in structured finance cashflow transactions. If the proposed changes .......

    News Round-up 28 January 2014

  • PCAs to address commingling risk

    German securitisations are increasingly being structured with a PCA that is a collection account in the name of the servicer but pledged to the SPV. This PCA differs from the typical servicer collection account in that collected moneys should not be commingled with the servicer's insolvency estate in case of servicer insolvency. In Fitch's view, the PCA could reduce such .......

    News Round-up 28 January 2014
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