Some asset managers are not tracking their collateralized debt obligations well enough and may be caught out once the underlying collateral begins to weaken. That's according to Chris Flanagan, head of asset-backed securities research with JPMorgan in New York, who said many asset managers need to better monitor deals to identify problems early.
One problem is that some firms don't have sufficient infrastructure relative to the number of deals being managed. "It's a matter of looking at every [instrument] you own, looking for delinquency trends and running stress tests continually to make sure [it] is what you thought it was when you bought it," Flanagan said. Asset managers will one day be glad they did the extra work, he said, adding, "When things do start to weaken, we will see those differences realized."
