Fitch Ratings is putting together dozens of short summaries on collateralized debt obligation managers in a new initiative. The rating agency recently put a batch of one-page summaries containing high-level facts from managers including Pacific Investment Management and TCW Asset Management on its Web site and is actively soliciting contributions from more managers, said Said Rafat, senior director at Fitch in New York. "Investors want to know who the manager is and what do we know about them," he explained, noting the profiles appear to be the first of their kind.
The summaries include information on the manager such total as assets under management, existing CDOs under management and appropriate CDO contacts. "We're trying to capture some high-level facts about the organizations," Rafat noted. He said there is no specific reason for releasing the profiles now but the process is part of Fitch's broader effort to shed as much light as possible on CDO asset managers. Firms looking to include their information should contact Rafat.