Asset Securitization Report articles from January 2002

Asset Securitization Report archives from January 2002

Whispers.
January 2, 2002... People ING Bank has appointed Mark Bronder as director and head of Netherlands securitization, starting next month, reporting to Robert Plehn, head of European securitization for ING. Bronder joins from Societe Generale, where he was...

Providian spreads narrow on the news, JPMorgan proud new owner.
January 2, 2002... The Street came out with mixed emotions over JPMorgan's acquisition of Providian Financial Corp.'s $8.2 billion portfolio of prime and near-prime credit cards. From an ABS viewpoint, bondholders in Providian Master Trust enjoyed...

Stanfield/Ceres readies SIV.
January 2, 2002... In the last several weeks, the former Ceres Capital has come a long way in raising the funds needed to launch its already-rated structured investment vehicle (SIV), sources said. The company partnered with CDO powerhouse Stanfield Investment...

Belgian ABS market picks up.
January 2, 2002... With prepayments stabilizing, the Belgian securitization markets may be poised for a comeback. According to Moody's Investors Service, Belgian securitizations have been on a decline since reaching record volumes in 1998, when the market...

Will Enron be an LTV Steel?
January 2, 2002... Over the last few months, structured finance analysts have been gauging Enron Corp.'s bankruptcy and its technical impact on the various market segments, such as CMBS deals with Enron office space exposure, CDOs referencing Enron, as well as...

Dollar-for-dollar makes it harder to sell Superior's assets.
January 2, 2002... In a semi-ironic twist of fate, analysts are speculating that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s problems pawning off Alliance Funding's subprime platform/portfolio is partially attributable to the new dollar-for-dollar residual capital...

HFC plans bigger real estate ABS program, prodded by rating agency.
January 2, 2002... In an earnings conference call last week, David Schoenholz, chief financial officer at Household Finance Corp., said the company will beef up its securitization of real estate loans this year, which HFC sees as its largest area of portfolio...

New franchise servicing team formed.
January 2, 2002... Betsy Vartainian, formerly of GMAC Commercial Mortgage, recently joined Greystone Servicing Corp. to spearhead the firm's franchise loan servicing operation. Vartainian moved over with several of her seniors from GMAC (see ASR 12/3/01 and...

Ivy brings principal-protected ABS.
January 2, 2002... Although Ivy Asset Management's $300 million collateralized fund obligation (CFO) was postponed last quarter, JPMorgan closed a multiple class offering of a fund-of-hedge-funds for the client. The funding for Ivy combines modest-term...

Strong demand for auto paper drives two prime deals tighter.
January 2, 2002... New issuance came out of the gate fairly strong last week, with two top-tier captive auto deals announced before Monday even began, followed by deals in the home-equity, credit card sectors and even a small stranded-cost deal. By Thursday,...

CDO Year in Review and Outlook: "Simply Unflappable" By Gail Lee, Helen Remeza, David Kung, of Credit Suisse First Boston.
January 2, 2002... In 2001, in the face of a slowing economy, the tragic events on Sept. 11 and the Enron Corp. debacle, not to mention a wave of downgrades, the relatively new CDO sector continued forging ahead as a new structured credit product in the fixed...

Sticking to what they know: C-BASS carves out a successful niche based on residential-mortgage credit risk.
January 2, 2002... Ask the senior management of Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization (C-BASS) what the key to the success of their unique business model is - and how their firm has grown so rapidly in its six-year history - and the answer will most...

MBS Roundup: Originator selling, profit-taking dominate flows.
January 2, 2002... Since rates began rallying Thursday, Jan. 10, mortgages have been under pressure from investor selling to protect profits, as well as mortgage banker supply. According to Lehman Brothers, the mortgage sector has given up most of its gains...

K-mart related CTLs downgraded.
January 2, 2002... According to a press release from Standard & Poor's last week, the rating agency lowered its ratings on 14 Kmart Corporation-related credit tenant lease transactions and placed them on CreditWatch with negative implications. This action was in...

With the pipeline abuzz, CMBS is a little ahead of itself...
January 2, 2002... As if trading activity wasn't fast enough in the first couple of weeks of the year, the post-Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA) conference trade only exacerbated the flow. The secondary market saw more than $2.5 billion in...

Qwest Corp. looks to connect $185 million credit tenant lease.
January 2, 2002... Despite the January chill of traditional deal flow, Legg Mason is warming the net lease world with a $185 million credit tenant lease transaction for Qwest Corporation, sources said. Qwest Corporation is rated BBB+' with a negative outlook...

New Freddie Mac guarantee fees may affect refi efficiency.
January 2, 2002... Freddie Mac's recent announcement that it is setting the minimum guarantee fee at 16 basis points on new contracts may lead to lower refinancing efficiency, analysts say. The GSE also announced that it will utilize shorter contract terms...

Private-label RMBS volume to decrease in 2002, says Moody's.
January 2, 2002... In a report released last week, Moody's Investors Service predicted that private-label RMBS total issuance would dip this year by about 10%-20% compared to last year's volume. The rating agency said that issuance in 2002 would reach roughly...

Japanese securitization expected to flourish in 2002, S&P says.
January 2, 2002... According to a report released by Standard and Poor's last week, the securitization market in Japan may grow by as much as 40%, to 5 trillion this year from 3.2 trillion last year. In part, S&P expects that the market will pick up as a...

European ABS pipeline augments as prospects for 2002 look good.
January 2, 2002... The year-end whirlwind that brought 2001 to a close with record-breaking European ABS issues is set to pick-up again this year, with the January pipeline building in momentum. Analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein are expecting a...

Whispers.
January 7, 2002... People Dennis Kraft, ex-ABS portfolio manager at The Hartford Investment Management Company (HIMCO), has landed at Conning Asset Management. Kraft now heads the trading and credit at Conning, which is owned by Swiss Re. Conning has 21%...

Citibank sinks three-pointer at buzzer.
January 7, 2002... In what may be the closest asset-backed league table race in the history of Thomson Financial's rankings, No. 1 ABS underwriter Citibank/Salomon Smith Barney re-opened (essentially upsizing) a 2001 Citibank credit card deal for $500 million on...

CMBS: Economic recovery is key.
January 7, 2002... The ducks are lining up nicely for the commercial mortgage sector this year, as a number of factors converge that are strong positives for this asset class. Higher interest and mortgage rates will limit production, thereby increasing demand for...

ING Barings poaches CSFB pro.
January 7, 2002... Andrew Yuder, who has championed timeshare securitizations and other esoteric assets at Credit Suisse First Boston over the past two years, joined ING Barings in late December. Yuder will be heading up ING's push into esoteric and other asset...

NELnet monetizes acquired residuals.
January 7, 2002... Via underwriter Citibank/ Salomon Smith Barney, the National Education Loan Network (NELnet) closed its second student loan net interest margin, a $60 million deal that priced at undisclosed terms on Dec. 27. As in its previous student...

PSNH plans second ABS in 2002.
January 7, 2002... PSNH Funding, a vehicle of P.S. Co. of New Hampshire, is readying a second stranded cost securitization, estimated at approximately $50 million, a company official confirmed. Timing for the offering is expected in the first quarter and...

GIA synthetic CDO in the works.
January 7, 2002... Global Investment Advisors (GIA) will launch this month a $1 billion (notional) synthetic, managed investment-grade CDO called GIA CSDO, backed by about 100 corporate names, sources familiar with the transaction said. This is one of a handful...

Loofbourrow adds new hire; begins '02 with innovative deals.
January 7, 2002... New York-based investment banking firm John W. Loofbourrow Associates Inc. has hired Andrea Blattman as a managing director. Prior to joining Loofbourrow, Blattman had spent three years at ING Barings as director of private placements with a...

Looking back, Fitch re-tinkers franchise-loan rating criteria.
January 7, 2002... In late December, Fitch released a report detailing updates to its franchise loan securitization rating criteria. Notably, the report attempts to tackle head-on buzzword issues such as "asset quality" within franchise pools and "aggressive...

Hedge fund-of-funds pipeline continues to build.
January 7, 2002... Despite the race to launch and price the first hedge fund-of-fund CDO by year-end, 2001 has come and gone, and first quarter 2002 is the new target. Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse First Boston are all contenders for the first...

IP financing book hitting shelves.
January 7, 2002... In his book titled From Ideas to Assets, which will be released on Jan. 10, intellectual property analyst and consultant Bruce Berman, of Brody Berman Associates, compiles a collection of essays and theories on the valuation of IP, including...

SLC plans first-ever ABS.
January 7, 2002... With a shelf registration in place, Citigroup subsidiary Student Loan Corp. is planning its first-ever securitization in the coming months, perhaps in the first quarter, according to a company official. The issuer still needs SEC approval...

The 9/11 effect: Thinking about risk.
January 7, 2002... Too often, the quantitative methods used in creating structured finance securities fail to reflect the real world when it matters most, during times of stress. Models and their underlying assumptions drawn from "normal" conditions should not be...

UBS Warburg grabs top spot in year-end 2001 RMBS league tables.
January 7, 2002... After a comparatively feeble showing in the previous year, UBS Warburg is the emerging winner in 2001 RMBS league tables. UBS is first place in the year-end RMBS manager activity rankings for both agency and non-agency MBS, according to...

MBS Roundup: Activity pick ups after seasonal slowdown.
January 7, 2002... Mortgage market activity over the past couple of weeks was generally quiet as many participants were on vacation due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Flows began to pick up on New Year's Eve on month-end extension buying, and have...

How state-related are state-related deals?
January 7, 2002... With virtually no regulatory uniform, the slate of European government-related securitizations (see ASR 12/03/01 p.1) that left its imprint on the record-breaking volumes of 2001 continue to be indecipherable in terms of risk weighting; but...

Latin America: a rough 2001, but a solid year in issuance.
January 7, 2002... It wasn't an easy year by any means, as economies across the globe slowed and the world became entrenched in fears of terrorism. However, as far as the debt market in Latin America goes, it wasn't such a poor showing, at least in comparison to...

S&P to announce that Turkish deals perform well in aftermath of 9/11.
January 7, 2002... A report that will be released by Standard and Poor's this week states that two Turkish deals, Credit Card Receivables Trust 1998-1, issued by Turkiye Garanti Bankasi, TAS and Akbank 2001-A Receivables Trust, issued by Akbank TAS, are currently...

2002: Strong European issuance ahead?
January 7, 2002... A rise in esoteric assets is expected for 2002, which signals that European ABS is healthy, says Moody's Investors Service in a report issued last week, but whilst ABS volumes are expected to be robust, numbers may not reach the record-breaking...

Whispers.
January 14, 2002... People As its presence in the ABS market is expected to grow this year, Banc of America Securities has restructured its asset-backed syndicate and trading operations, effective at the start January, sources confirmed. In addition to...

UBS Warburg, Goldman Sachs displace longtime MBS leaders.
January 14, 2002... In what was the biggest upset in the league tables for any fixed-income product last year, previous laggards UBS Warburg and Goldman Sachs leapt to the top of the charts. It was a year when few top-ranked banks relinquished their crowns,...

Ford kicks off 2002 with a blowout.
January 14, 2002... The first ABS offering of the year, from Ford Motor Credit, was a gargantuan success, setting a single-issue volume record and leading to a structural development that may be the hottest thing to hit the sector in 2002. The $5.78 billion 2002-A...

West LB brings subprime auto.
January 14, 2002... The New York-based ABS term group at Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (West LB) recently brought first-time issuer SeaWest Financial Corp. to market, in a $71.4 million securitization backed by subprime auto loans. This is the West...

JPMorgan says spread product well positioned for 2002, led by MBS.
January 14, 2002... The outlook appears favorable for spread product in the next three to six months, according to JPMorgan research strategists speaking last Wednesday at the firm's investor conference held at the corporate headquarters in New York. In the second...

ABCP market alive with issuance and new programs.
January 14, 2002... With nearly $30 billion in issuance, December was an action-packed month for the asset-backed commercial paper market, which polished off the year as a larger component of total CP outstandings than corporate CP for the first time, according to...

No. 1 ABS deal: In a year like this, plain vanilla tastes good Ford's $5 billion ABS deal sets the pace in a strong market.
January 14, 2002... By all accounts, ABS had a stellar run last year, with issuance a record $350 billion. And no deal better symbolizes the newfound ubiquity, depth and liquidity of asset-backeds than the the whopping $5 billion Ford Credit Floorplan Master Owner...

Conseco lashes out at analysts over future of MH unit.
January 14, 2002... In letter to its shareholders released last week, Conseco Inc. bashed Salomon Smith Barney analyst Colin Divine for projections on the company's manufactured housing business derived from loss and severity statistics of Greenpoint Financial...

TF BondWatch shows Aegon still No. 1, and PIMCO with top ABS fund, followed by Strong.
January 14, 2002... Aegon USA is still the largest U.S. based investor in asset-backed securities, with more than $5.2 billion in visible ABS, according to Thomson Financial BondWatch. Aegon's $5.2 billion in ABS represents about 10% of its total fixed income...

Correction.
January 14, 2002... Ferrell Capital did not close the $200 million (including $150 million in swap financing) Concert Series II hedge fund of fund CDO in November 2001, contrary to what was reported.

Three CDOs at different stages of marketing.
January 14, 2002... Back in November, Credit Based Asset Servicing and Securitization (C-BASS) was said to be looking for a lead manager for a first-quarter CDO. Ultimately the firm chose to "feed as many mouths as possible," running a joint book deal via Credit...

Nomura puts out report discussing cross-agency ratings.
January 14, 2002... Though not specifically addressing - or even mentioning - notching policies, Nomura Securities last week revealed a 36 page research report on trans-agency, trans-asset class ABS ratings migrations, which will almost surely be absorbed into the...

Nissan sees continued success with first deal of the year: Lower enhancements and spreads in line with Ford.
January 14, 2002... On the heels of Ford Motor Credit's deal, the largest auto loan securitization ever, Nissan's captive finance unit brought it own largest deal ever and enjoyed continued success in doing so. The $1.36 billion Nissan Auto Owner Trust 2002-A...

MBS recap: December prepayments hold some surprises.
January 14, 2002... Mortgages continued to see strong two-way flows last week, as money managers, in particular, remained strong buyers. Originator selling remained generally light at about $4 billion. There was also profit taking, notably from banks, on the...

Fears of extension risk mount as rates back up.
January 14, 2002... With mortgage rates recently rising above 7%, concerns are increasing over extension risk as supply and prepayments are bound to decrease substantially. In a recent report by UBS Warburg, analysts said the past year taught the market a lot...

CMBS week: spreads back on track.
January 14, 2002... The second week of the year has passed, and still the CMBS calendar remains barren. This should come as no alarm, however, as the huge spate of issuance toward the end of 2001 was more than enough to distribute and upcoming industry conferences...

Residential MBS 2002 Outlook: Late 2001 Interest Rate Rise Will Curtail the Current Record Refinancing Wave By Arthur Q. Frank, director of mortgage research at Nomura Securities International, Inc.
January 14, 2002... Summary: As we look at the new year, it is quite clear that the "mother of all refinancing waves" is about to start winding down. After the 30-year conventional current coupon yield hit its all-time low of 5.66% on October 31, an almost...

Has increased refi efficiency impacted speeds?
January 14, 2002... January prepayment reports highlighted record speeds with some cohorts prepaying at 70 plus CPR. Coming off a year that saw the biggest refinancing wave ever, it's worth taking a look into the increasing efficiency with which people are...

Centre clinches a leading role in European leveraged CLOs.
January 14, 2002... As the European CDO market comes in to its own, the market is seeing new assets in the mix. Such was the case in December with the GBP300 million Cairngorm transaction, which was the first synthetic CDO in the European market with a reference...

Liquidity still an issue in 2002 for European ABCP.
January 14, 2002... The European asset-backed commercial paper market ended on a high note, as a final thunder of issuance rocked the last five months of the year. Moody's Investors Service has given a positive outlook for the sector going forward. For the...

Mexico, Brazil and Chile add zing to local Latin markets.
January 14, 2002... It's becoming a hot market south of the border as Mexico, Brazil and Chile played some local hard ball last year. Analysts at Moody's Investors Service expect even more going forward with Mexico's newly approved mortgage GSE, Brazil's...

Santander launches first hybrid conduit before the start of the new year.
January 14, 2002... Before 2001 came to an end, Banco Santander was able to close a muti-functional hybrid asset-backed commercial paper conduit in the U.S., marking its second conduit, but its first hybrid and the first in the U.S. Altamira Funding (see ASR...

Whispers.
January 28, 2002... News The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has awarded a Bear Stearns special servicer subsidiary, EMC Mortgage Corp., as the winning bidder for Superior Bank's portfolio of residuals. The actual dollar amount of the portfolio was not...

C-BASS launches revolutionary tool, provides investors with loan-level data.
January 28, 2002... Specialty investment boutique Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization (C-BASS) is about to launch a surveillance tool, dubbed RADAR Viewer, that many market participants claim will set a benchmark in the mortgage industry for the...

Australia: NAB offers new vehicle.
January 28, 2002... Growth and innovation are set to be major themes in the Australian asset-backed markets again this year, following bullish forecasts from the major rating agencies and further evidence of growing sophistication among issuers. Moody's...

Tiering blurs ABS new-issue pricing.
January 28, 2002... As the economic outlook has worsened, ABS investors have placed an increasingly higher value on the credit profile of issuers, sources note, with higher-rated finance companies consistently besting their middle- and lower-rated counterparts....

Home Equity review: BofA to sell $17B in home equity ABS, or retain?
January 28, 2002... Details of Bank of America's $17 billion balance-sheet securitization last quarter are leading some analysts to believe the bank does not intend to sell off the resulting securities, which was a move widely anticipated by the market this year....

Moody's releases first phase of CDO research product line.
January 28, 2002... This week, Moody's Investors Service will release the first installment of its new research suite called CDO Navigator, which the agency hopes will add to the market's transparency, something investors are likely to welcome. In fact, lack...

Several market-value CBOs near failing net-worth tests.
January 28, 2002... Asset managers of between seven and eight market-value CBOs have sent legal documents to investors requesting ratification of amendments to avoid early amortization events. The deals could go into early AM because they are coming dangerously...

ABS CDOs to come under pressure.
January 28, 2002... Lehman Brother's ABS strategists are cautious on aggregate U.S. consumer credit quality in 2002, which is likely to challenge ABS CDO managers this year, writes the firm's head of CDO research, Sunita Ganapati and Philip Ha. The consumer...

Lender-paid MI drops in fourth quarter 2001, monolines benefit.
January 28, 2002... The use of lender-paid mortgage insurance in residential ABS declined in the fourth quarter 2001, after peaking near the middle of the year, according to research from Moody's Investors Service. Allegedly, the LPMIs had satisfied their...

Honda latest in auto sector, Citibank comes rich to MBNA.
January 28, 2002... There were few surprises in primary asset-backed trading last week, with most of the $5.4 billion pricing in the auto-loan and credit card sectors. The lone off-the-run sector to be represented was stranded costs, as AEP unit Central Power...

Structured hedge fund products summit, held Jan. 17 at the Doral Park Hotel, NYC.
January 28, 2002... Presentation by David Graubard, senior analyst, structured finance, Thomson Financial As a result of recent underperformance in the equity and bond markets, the alternative investment sector has been booming, but a need for medium-term,...

Spreads tighten on better buying, less originator selling.
January 28, 2002... Last week saw reversal from the heavy originator selling and profit-taking that was seen in the previous week. The widening in spreads encouraged investors, especially money managers, to begin adding positions again. At the same time,...

CMBS goes to the end and back again as spreads move off 2001 tights.
January 28, 2002... In the give-and-take world of the markets, the CMBS sector has been on the latter side of that trade this week. Spreads are moving back out since snapping into 2001 narrows in a simple profit-taking mode. Bid lists seen the last couple of weeks...

Refi Index rise leads to new concerns in the MBS market.
January 28, 2002... The rebound in the MBA Refi Index last week probably confounded some people in the mortgage market given prior expectations that prepayments were going to drop off substantially based on the back-up of rates late last year, some market...

To separate from the state: European municipalities try to retain control over their own debt.
January 28, 2002... As state regions and municipalities within Europe increasingly embrace securitization as a financing alternative, a new debate has emerged over the fiscal and administrative relationship between central governments - which conduct their own...

Deregulation expected to bring new issuers to French ABS market this year; probable focus on utility sector.
January 28, 2002... The numbers may not be enough to turn heads, but French securitizations offer a variety in assets that are as varied as the many wine and cheeses throughout the different regions of its country. And while its volume may not amass to 2001...

Portguese market is catching on with a hopeful 2002, Moody's says.
January 28, 2002... Portugal is getting the hang of things these days - at least that seems to be the market opinion. A report last week from Moody's Investors Service predicted that 2002 will be filled with asset-backed transactions and CDO deals from repeat...

Brazilian local market defies Argentine crisis after a prolonged dry spell; financial future-flow deal launches.
January 28, 2002... It looks like the sun is coming out over the Brazilian market as the first national scale deal in more than a year is expected to hit by the end of this month. Grupo Odebrecht is bringing the second-ever financial future flow to the...

S. Korea preps 1st offshore-SPV deal.
January 28, 2002... Despite difficult market conditions in S. Korea, Korea Thrunet Co. Ltd. has stepped up to the plate with a KRW 120 billion privately placed securitization - the country's first transaction with an offshore special purpose vehicle. Thrunet,...