Asset Securitization Report articles from January 2006

Asset Securitization Report archives from January 2006

Whispers.(appointments)
January 9, 2006... As part of Cantor Fitzgerald's ongoing expansion of its debt capital markets group, it hired David Goldman as global head of fixed income research. Goldman was previously global head of debt research at Banc of America Securities. Before...

U.S. ABS market reaches $1 trillion dollar mark in 2005.
January 9, 2006... The U.S. asset-backed securities market in 2005 swelled to a record $1.1 trillion of issuance - exceeding year-ago analyst expectations and for the first time reaching into the trillion dollar range, according to data maintained by Thomson...

Market braces for Reg AB.
January 9, 2006... As Reg AB took effect Jan. 1 - just a month after securities offering reform - the impact on the ABS market appeared to be more stress and relatively little volume. "In the space of a month, we had two of the largest regulatory rulemakings...

Consolidation may not slow card ABS.(asset backed securities)
January 9, 2006... Through the purchase of credit card giant MBNA Corp., Bank of America Corp. last week became the latest - and largest - in a string of national banks that have acquired U.S. credit card companies. While more such deals are widely expected to...

U.S. ABS market opens 2006 with slow week.(asset backed securities)
January 9, 2006... The U.S. ABS primary market started the New Year with a sluggish pace, pricing only $7 billion of new issues. The light week was most likely due to the newly implemented Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation AB, which became fully...

Deloitte releases product with collateral projection capabilities.(Deloitte & Touche L.L.P.)
January 9, 2006... Deloitte & Touche's securitization services group has just launched a new version of its ABS Suite product, which now features tighter integration with the system's pool selection and collateral servicing modules, and adds new transaction...

U.S. CDO market posts gains through 2005.(collateralized debt obligations)
January 9, 2006... Like a well-oiled machine, the US asset-backed securities CDO market in 2005 grew by more than 66% percent, fed in large part by a robust housing market, hungry investors - and oiled by a benevolent Federal Reserve, historically speaking. Total...

A tad shy of $100bln, Countrywide remains top ABS issuer.
January 9, 2006... Making a big contribution to the epic volume of ABS issued last year, mortgage giant Countrywide Securities came just shy of the $100 billion mark, beating out competitors with $93.5 billion in ABS issuance and an 8.2% market share. The...

Hertz captures U.S. ABS deal of the year.
January 9, 2006... When it comes to Hertz Corp.'s $4 billion in notes backed by rental car fleet leases -Hertz Vehicle Financing LLC, Series 2005-1 and 2005-2 - it is not only sheer size that sets the transaction apart from other deals. They also changed the way...

Tourmaline CDO wins 2005 deal of the year.(collateralized debt obligations)
January 9, 2006... While growth in the asset-backed CDO market in 2005 soared - with some underwriters posting triple-digit gains in sales (see cover story) - the downside was often the difficulty faced in finding collateral fast enough and of high enough quality...

Northern Rock's Whinstone clinches Europe's deal of 2005.(residential mortgage backed securities)
January 9, 2006... European RMBS hit a record volume in 2005, climbing 14% to $175.2 billion. With the European housing markets improving, analysts say there's more healthy activity in store for 2006. The vastness of the market is noteworthy in and of itself, but...

ABN's Shield 1 comes in second.(ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (Amsterdam, Netherlands))(Brief Article)
January 9, 2006... In a testament to the ravenous appetite for European paper, ABN Amro placed the largest securitization deal of the decade - the 22 billion (26.31 billion) Shield 1 transaction that has earned it the accolade of European Runner-Up Deal of the...

Russian Auto Loans roll onto the scene to snatch first prize.
January 9, 2006... Last year was an exciting time for the region encompassing Eastern Europe, the ex-Soviet Union, the Middle East and Africa, known as EEMEA. Turkey pumped out transactions like a well-oiled future flows factory, Egypt produced a massive $1.5...

Cross-border Metrofinanciera wins, despite domestic craze.
January 9, 2006... Defying signs that a domestic currency transaction would breezily seize the award for Latin American Deal of the Year, the honors instead went to a cross-border deal: Metrofinanciera Trust 2005-1 and 2005-2. Nearly all the strongest contenders...

First Indonesia deal since Asian crisis scoops top prize.
January 9, 2006... As far as significance, innovation and price execution, 2005 stands out as an exceptional year for Asian securitizations. With many exceptional deals, it was challenging selecting a winner for the Asian Deal of the Year. However, one...

FOMC minutes bring cheer to New Year.(Federal Open Market Committee)
January 9, 2006... The new year got off to a good start for mortgages. Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's December meeting suggest that they are nearing the end of their tightening cycle. The market rallied on this news, and moved the 2s/10s spread...

RMBS grows a robust $200bln in 2005, with Bear top arranger.(residential mortgage-backed securities )
January 9, 2006... The residential mortgage-backed securities sector in 2005 grew by more than $200 billion in issuance from 2004. Combining both agency and non-agency RMBS, total issuance reached 1,264 deals worth $960.5 billion last year, compared with 1,201...

Housing slowdown expected in 2006.
January 9, 2006... The current outlook for the housing market is less than robust, with housing indicators expected to decline this year. Based on projections from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association, for instance, housing starts are...

Pipeline building, though slightly slower than prior years.
January 9, 2006... Unlike previous years in European securitizations, January will not play host to any issues held over from last December's massive buildup. Traders said that aside from the two deals that are currently being marketed, there might be two more...

Santander said eying MBNA credit card ops bought from Abbey.(MBNA Corp.)
January 9, 2006... In a move that could cost Banco Santander Central Hispano at least GBP289 million ($507 million), the Spanish bank is looking to purchase the credit card operations that MBNA Corp. bought from Santander unit Abbey National PLC's four years ago....

TSI platform securitizes corporate loans in Dresdner deal.(True Sale International)(Brief Article)
January 9, 2006... Germany's True Sale International (TSI) venture kicked off 2006 securitizing a batch of corporate loans, adding to the consumer loan deals completed in that asset class last year. Since its inception in 2004, TSI has already seen two...

Holiday season brings deals in China, Korea, Taiwan.
January 9, 2006... While some ABS bankers enjoyed Christmas party season, the week leading up to the holidays was not so relaxing for those working on deals in China, Korea and Taiwan. The extra hours proved profitable, with four transactions completed, all...

Whispers.(appointments)
January 16, 2006... Buyout firm The Carlyle Group has hired Martin Glavin as an associate director from Prudential M&G. The new hire plus Louis Reynolds, who came on board last September from General Electric Co., boosts to 10 Carlyle's roster of bankers and...

Cifuentes settles with Wachovia: But bank may not be out of the woods.(Arturo Cifuentes of Wachovia Securities Inc.)
January 16, 2006... Wachovia Securities reached a settlement with its former head of CDO research, Arturo Cifuentes, who filed a Sarbanes-Oxley complaint against the bank arguing that he was improperly dismissed. The settlement, however, may not mean the end of...

New structure weds whole ABS & CMBS.
January 16, 2006... European corporate securitizations are poised for another slow year, with bank lending remaining the financing route of choice. And volumes could be further pressured this year with a developing new trend that could see some ageing corporate...

Big CDO managers bulk up to 3Q05.(collateralized debt obligations)
January 16, 2006... In what may not come as a huge surprise to market participants, large CDO managers in 2005 became even larger - with 28 collateral managers representing half of the U.S. CDO market in terms of outstanding liabilities by the third quarter of the...

All eyes on the road ahead, as auto tiering may fishtail.
January 16, 2006... Tiering in the auto sector is poised to shift, Lehman Brothers predicts. Some nonprime and subprime auto deals should start trading tighter relative to prime paper, as financially struggling U.S. automakers force ABS investors to re-evaluate...

Subprime loan defaults, on average, fall year-over-year.(Friedman Billings Ramsey)
January 16, 2006... Default rates among subprime loans rose 56.5% - or 187 of the 331 metropolitan statistical areas in October 2005 from the year-ago period, according to Friedman Billings Ramsey. On average, however, the default rate for subprime loans fell to...

2006 ABS issuance volume to keep par with last year.
January 16, 2006... Consensus for overall ABS issuance volumes for 2006 is steady as she goes.' Most expect the final tally to come in near $700 billion, and close to the 2005 total, assuming shifts in volume among classes. In any case, the backdrop to all the...

U.S. ABS warms up with $14 billion week.(asset backed securities)
January 16, 2006... The U.S. ABS primary market showed its first signs of life last week as issuance nearly doubled from the previous week to hit roughly $14 billion. More than half of those deals had yet to price as of press time, but the largest to price...

Robust CLO issuance likely to continue in 2006, but risks remain.(collateralized loan obligation )
January 16, 2006... The pace of collateralized loan obligation (CLO) issuance is expected to remain strong in 2006, as long as leveraged loan issuance, liquidity, default rates, liability and underlying collateral spreads, and investor demand for CLO equity remain...

Total U.S. bond issuance slated to decline in 2006.
January 16, 2006... As the U.S. economy expands and the Federal Reserve continues its gradual uptick on medium- to long-term interest rates, overall bond issuance is forecasted to decline 13.3% to $3.56 trillion in 2006, compared to $4.10 trillion in 2005,...

Mortgage sell-off punctuates strong start to year.
January 16, 2006... The strong start to the New Year is continuing in mortgages, though Tuesday last week did see a heavy sell-off that raised questions of whether the tone had shifted. Mortgage flows were strong and two-way. Monday got the week off to a good...

Prepayments expected to slow along with the housing market.
January 16, 2006... This year's theme in the MBS market appears to be the potential slowing in the housing market and by extension, the resulting impact on prepayments. While there are some signs that housing may be slowing, a clearer idea of this isn't likely...

Mortgage market spread volatility likely to linger.(residential mortgage-backed securities)
January 16, 2006... The spreads on the subordinate tranches of RMBS might have narrowed from the wider levels achieved in the final months of 2005, but the outlook for the performance of the residential housing market is not necessarily better - or worse - than...

Multifamily transactions seize German CMBS spotlight.(commercial mortgage backed securities)
January 16, 2006... The market is ripe for the first pure multifamily residential dwelling securitization of Eastern German properties, market sources said. The deal is expected to be 400 million in size. But the transaction won't be alone as 2006 is expected...

Fitch, RBS explore outcome of likely smoking ban in U.K.
January 16, 2006... It is looking increasingly likely that England will go the way of its neighboring U.K. countries and issue an outright ban on smoking in public places. How this might affect pub securitizations is still unclear, but Fitch Ratings analysts said...

Granite deal poised to set early benchmark for 2006.
January 16, 2006... The primary pipeline in Europe is slowly gathering momentum, but the main story remains secondary trading. With only a handful of deals visible on the primary so far, market sources say trades continue to pull in. "The beginning of the...

AEON lines up Thai card deal, arranged, again, by Citi.
January 16, 2006... Thai consumer finance company AEON Thana Sinsap, a subsidiary of Japan's AEON Credit Service, is plotting a third raid on the ABS market at the end of this month. Citigroup Global Markets will arrange the THB2.3 billion ($57.4 million) credit...

Whispers.(capital markets)
January 23, 2006... Wachovia Securities announced last week that its real estate capital markets group will start delivering commercial mortgage loan and REPO finance products in both the U.K. and Germany. This expansion into Europe is being headed by Bill Cohane...

ABX.HE makes its grand debut.
January 23, 2006... Last week's introduction of a tradable index for synthetic home equity asset-backed securities is without question expected to provide more liquidity and a more diverse set of options for market participants interested in either buying or...

Mortgage lenders turn to ABCP.(asset backed commercial paper)
January 23, 2006... Between the time when mortgages are originated, and the end of the month when they are securitized, the assets are waiting in limbo. The originating finance company will eventually recoup its total outlays when the pool is securitized....

Cross-border EM wrap for 2005: Issuance tables talk Turkey.(emerging market )
January 23, 2006... Cross-border emerging market issuance shifted on a tectonic scale last year, as new markets sprouting in the East fueled a migration of players from Latin America to Turkey, the Middle East and the ex-Soviet Union. To be sure, not everyone set...

Morgan Stanley to bring $650 million hybrid to market.(collateralized debt obligations)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... Morgan Stanley is expecting to bring to market in February a $650 million hybrid cash and synthetic CDO. Rabobank International will act as collateral advisor and JPMorgan Chase as trustee. The CDO is another in a growing line of hybrid...

Student loan ABS to grow modestly in 06.(asset backed securities)
January 23, 2006... U.S. student loan ABS is poised for growth this year, according to Standard & Poor's. A combination of record college attendance, rising tuition costs - above the federal loan limits - and an increasing market comfort in private loan products...

Non-U.S. issuers still sorting out Reg AB: People split on whether new rules will result in more deals.
January 23, 2006... How Reg AB will impact foreign issuance in the U.S. is yet to be seen, and predictions are going both ways, with some expecting more deals to result and others proving more skeptical. Tom Deutsch, associate director at the American...

ABS primary market cranks out $14 billion.(asset backed securities)
January 23, 2006... The U.S. ABS primary market priced $14 billion last week in what has been a surprisingly steady pace of issuance so far in the nascent year. One of the most unique deals on the week was a $6 billion U.K. RMBS, multi-currency deal, $3.7...

Housing market worries unsettling CDO bonanza.(collateralized debt obligations)
January 23, 2006... Some view spread widening in residential real estate CDOs as a buying opportunity Issuance of collateralized debt obligations backed by mortgage and home equity loan-backed securities reached record levels in 2005, with both the number of...

Mortgage flows influenced by curve shifts.
January 23, 2006... After two weeks of active buying, selling picked up and flows turned two-way as the curve flattened and periodically inverted. With most investor types participating - including servicers - activity moved up and down the coupon stack depending...

Flat HPA expected in 2006.(home price appreciation )(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... Flat home price appreciation is expected to start in 2006 and prepayment speeds are going to reflect this deceleration in 2007, analysts said. However, repricing of turnover expectations should be immediate. Lehman Brothers estimates that...

CMBS projections mixed for 2006.(commercial mortgage-backed securities)
January 23, 2006... Overall, the CMBS market could be positioned for more growth this year, as investors flock to the sector's stable track record and, in some cases, relatively cheap pricing. Global issuance last year reached $256 billion, up from $138 billion in...

Barclays sees opportunity in PAC-II Inverse IOs.(Barclays Capital)(interest only)
January 23, 2006... For investors anticipating the Federal Reserve's tightening cycle to end soon, Barclays Capital analysts suggest PAC-II inverse IOs. Specifically, with risks of an increase in prepayment speeds, they prefer inverse-IOs off of a PAC-II tranche....

U.K. house prices set for a soft landing.
January 23, 2006... The last two months of 2005 showed a pick up in the U.K. housing market with increased lending and transaction activity as well as rising home prices. These factors indicate that U.K.'s housing market may be in store for its first-ever soft...

Granite pricing sets positive tone for European market.
January 23, 2006... Northern Rock priced its latest Granite deal on the tight end of price talk after having upsized the deal by 50% to GBP6 billion ($10.5 million) early last week. The deal, market sources say, sets a positive tone for the year. Traders at...

Fitch downgrades Craegmoor Funding No. 2.
January 23, 2006... Fitch Ratings last week announced that it would downgrade by one notch all unwrapped tranches of notes issued under the whole business securitization of Craegmoor Funding No. 2. The rating agency said it remains concerned about several issues...

Deloitte & Touche open support unit in London.
January 23, 2006... Deloitte & Touche announced last week that it planned to open an on -the-ground support unit for its securitization software in London. Chris Priskoto, a manager on the U.S. securitization technology practice, has been appointed to lead this...

Synthetic ABS in the cards for Malaysia.(asset backed securities)
January 23, 2006... Following a stellar 2005, the Malaysian ABS market looks set to carry the momentum into 2006 with synthetic structures due to be introduced soon. At least two transactions backed by loans to small and medium-sized enterprises are due for...

Thai SMC falls foul of Finance Ministry.(Secondary Mortgage Corporation)(Thai Keha)
January 23, 2006... Thailand's state-owned Secondary Mortgage Corporation (SMC) - established in 1997 to purchase mortgages from financial institutions - looks likely to face criminal charges for fraudulent activity related to its securitization program. ...

Whispers.
January 30, 2006... Fitch Ratings has announced several management changes in its ABS Group. Managing director Mike Dean will lead the Asset Backed Commercial Paper effort. Also, Claire Mezzanote will take over the Consumer ABS operation. Consumer ABS encompasses...

ASF 2006 triples attendance, drawing record number of industry professionals.(American Securitization Forum)
January 30, 2006... The American Securitization Forum is expecting a record 3,600 attendees at its annual conference, ASF 2006, in Las Vegas this week. The industry organization for several years has played a virtual game of tug-of-war for attendees against...

UBS expanding its securitization team.
January 30, 2006... UBS is adding to its securitization team worldwide as part of a larger initiative to significantly ramp up its asset-backed activity. New hires will be made in the U.S., Europe and Asia, said Shahid Quraishi, managing director and global...

A comeback for tiering?(residential mortgage backed securities )
January 30, 2006... During the past couple of years, investors have treated residential MBS paper democratically. During a hungry period, markets have been hardly differentiating among issuers, regardless of quality, capital and liquidity of the companies....

Smoke could be clearing for tobacco ABS.
January 30, 2006... More than $5 billion in tobacco settlement ABS came to the market last year compared with no issuance in 2004. The resurgence of issuance is being fueled by a string of positive litigation rulings and low interest rates, among other factors....

Analysts: ABX.HE likely to remain volatile in near term.
January 30, 2006... The home equity ABS credit default swap index - called the ABX.HE - is expected by analysts to remain volatile, at least in the near term. Prices on the five indices that comprise the index are expected somewhat to mirror the instability...

U.S. ABS market swells to $26 billion as ASF conference gets under way in Vegas.(asset backed securities)
January 30, 2006... The U.S. ABS primary market generated a whopping $26 billion as issuers and banks rushed to get deals done before market participants head to Las Vegas for the American Securitization Forum's 2006 ABS conference this week. The following...

Moody's to boost its servicer ratings group this year.
January 30, 2006... Moody's Investors Service is ramping up its servicer ratings group with a significant increase in the number of companies it covers. Moody's assigns ratings to about 45 servicers in RMBS and ABS, up from about 30 servicers a year ago, said...

Secondary market reacts to Ameriquest settlement.
January 30, 2006... Ameriquest Capital Holdings Corp. last week settled the second-largest predatory lending suit in U.S. history that had the largest subprime loan originator's upper management embroiled for more than a year. The Orange, Calif.-based lender...

DeAM ventures into CLOs with Flagship deal.(Deutsche Asset Management Inc)(Collateralized loan obligations)
January 30, 2006... After issuing its first CDO in the U.S. just last year, Deutsche Asset Management has gotten its foot in the door of the booming U.S. CLO marketplace thanks to a new agreement with Columbia Management under which DeAM will manage the day-to-day...

DBRS releases its approach to monitoring CMBS.(Dominion Bond Rating Service Ltd.)(Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities )
January 30, 2006... The Dominion Bond Rating Service released the DBRS Approach to Monitoring Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities [CMBS]: Performance Update Reports analysis last week. The report, which provides transparency for the agency's continuous...

Profit taking picks up, but near-term outlook remains positive.
January 30, 2006... After a strong month, profit taking picked up last week as the market traded off ahead of this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting and as Asia prepared for public holidays to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The week started off,...

Emerging trends in European structured finance.
January 30, 2006... By Dominic Griffiths (Partner) and Ela Zakaim (Senior Associate) of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw's European securitization group The Basel II Accord will profoundly change the securitization markets. Even though it is not expected to become...

Rules to remain unchanged despite Granite upgrades.
January 30, 2006... The recent upgrade of the first 10 series of the Granite master trust program by all three rating agencies may on the surface signal a shift in their approach on upgrades for legally tappable deals. Analysts, however, say the rules remain...

Study: Europe sees bigger shift to fixed income markets.
January 30, 2006... Europe's fixed income markets are getting a lot more attention than its equity markets these days, according to Greenwich Associates' 2005 European fixed income research study. The study found that fixed income assets under management in...

Lebanon's new ABS law has plenty of issues to be worked out.
January 30, 2006... Lebanese economic reforms feature a new securitization law that shows off the new government's willingness to modernize its capital markets. However, industry sources say the new law is already in need of a revamp before it's ready to roll. ...

Sideways' trading in Europe despite Granite deal.
January 30, 2006... Secondary trading moved sideways last week despite a lack of primary paper actively marketing in Europe. Not even the $10.5 billion Granite 2006-1 deal managed to pressure trading in either direction. "[There is] little visible supply at a...

Regulators will be the key to Chinese MBS growth.
January 30, 2006... Numerous foreign firms, including banks, law firms and credit enhancers, are ramping up their efforts to tap the huge potential for mortgage-backed securitization in China. The main focus is on helping second- and third-tier regional and city...

Singapore REIT eyes overseas expansion through CMBS.(Real estate investment trusts)(commercial mortgage-backed securities )
January 30, 2006... CapitaCommercial Trust, the commercial real estate investment trust established by Singapore-based property developer CapitaLand, will soon tap the Malaysian securitization market with a M$115 million ($30.7 million) CMBS. The transaction,...