CDO Focus will now be updated quarterly with 4 issues per year.
Market Commentary
For the most part, CDO market activity has been lackluster for both issuers and investors since last summer’s credit crunch, according to Kevin Petrovcik, Managing Director and Head of the Financial Structures Group for Invesco with over $13 billion in CDOs under management, but a correction may be in store...more...
The London office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (“Orrick”) hosted a panel discussion on 13 March 2008 to discuss the credit crunch, the liquidity crisis and the challenges involved in the valuation of certain assets, including collateralized debt and bond obligations (together, “CDOs”)...more...
Ben Shoval, Managing Director of Ambit Funding, answered a few questions for us about the firm he and his partners run and how they are enabling hedge fund investors to generate returns by taking an unusual approach to investing in the asset-based space...more...
Valuation Update
As a tide of litigation between investors and arranging banks and other participants in the global structured finance market threatens to engulf the courts on both sides of the Atlantic, we look at some of the types of claim that are likely to dominate the headlines in the months (and years) to come...more...
As a tide of litigation between investors and arranging banks and other participants in the global structured finance market threatens to engulf the courts on both sides of the Atlantic, we look at some of the types of claim that are likely to dominate the headlines in the months (and years) to come...more...
BDO Stoy Hayward Investment Management is celebrating the anniversary of its Fitzwilliam Strategic Bond Fund and Balanced Income Fund which both launched in December 2006. The Funds were established to offer innovative investment alternatives in the multi-manager space...more...
Internos Real Investors LLP (real estate investment management) was launched with founding founders Jos Short and Andrew Thornton calling for renewed optimism as Europe continues to hold exciting and profitable opportunities for real estate investors...more...
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced on March 7th, the details of the sale of about $269 million of tax-exempt and taxable general obligation bonds...more...
Cover Story
The slowdown in the collateralized debt obligation (CDO) and collateralized loan obligation (CLO) markets is leading some Wall Street firms to refocus on their core competencies by shifting "non-core" mid-level and back-office functions to third-party specialists. This shift stems from a growing belief that the current downturn will last longer than first expected and that outsourcing may offer a way to ride out current market turbulence while maintaining vital operations...more...
Ratings News
In the current credit crunch, the agencies have appeared incompetent, failing to reflect in time in their ratings the deteriorating credit quality of sub-prime mortgage loans, pressures on home price appreciation and the ripple effect of sub prime loans on RMBS, CDOs backed by such RMBS, financial guarantors and others exposed to the sub-prime mortgage sector...more...
The CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity said in early February that it is encouraged by reports that global regulators, finance ministers and central bankers will be reviewing IOSCO’s Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Credit Rating Agencies to supplement their discussions on changes to the credit rating agency (CRA) industry...more...
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced in February that it has revised the correlation and recovery assumptions it uses to rate certain new collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and to perform surveillance on CDO transactions backed by residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS)...more...
Healthy commercial real estate fundamentals and relatively low delinquency rates in 2007 supported North American commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), which turned in another year of strong credit performance despite deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, according to a recent report published by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services...more...
In a report published Jan. 31, 2008, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced that it has concluded the research and feedback solicitation process that was initiated by its Oct. 24, 2007, Request For Comment (RFC) and, as a result, revised its guidelines for residential mortgage loan servicers' reporting of monthly loan-level origination variables and data and performance information...more...
Legal Update
The German Federal Government seems not to appreciate the rather healthy activities of hedge funds, private equity funds and sovereign funds in the days of economic crises (hedge funds offer desperately needed hedging opportunities, private equity funds rescue more companies than they plunder and sovereign funds invest in shattered major banks) and has proposed a new Act on Limitation of Risks relating to Financial Investments...more...
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced on March 3, 2008 that he has appointed Buffalo City Comptroller Andrew SanFilippo to serve as a director on the State of New York Municipal Bond Bank Agency (MBBA), which helps local governments access capital for general improvements and education needs...more...