Securitization People and Markets

The adverse market refinance fee came under fire in a hearing this week, during which House policy makers characterised it as last-minute and poorly explained. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria emphasized that the fee is necessary, and the only alternative would be to receive funding from Congress before the December implementation date.

Credit Suisse has teamed up with its biggest shareholder to launch a private credit lending platform, bringing to fruition a plan that been beset by delays and high profile departures.

Credit Suisse has hired Dimitris Papadopoulos as a managing director from Natixis to run origination and syndication of CLOs in EMEA.

The UK should be seen as the “poster child” of the transition from inter-bank offered rates (Ibors) to risk-free rates, said a spokesperson from the Financial Conduct Authority, speaking at Global ABS 2020 on Wednesday, who urged the ABS market to turn towards solving the problem of legacy issuance.

The UK has an opportunity to change key aspects of the Securitization Regulation once it leaves the European Union to the benefit of investors and issuers, said speakers at IMN’s Global ABS 2020 virtual conference on Tuesday.

GlobalCapital and Afme convened a virtual roundtable to tackle the biggest issues facing securitization as the pandemic crisis continues. While other capital markets and the wider economy are reeling from the economic fallout stemming from Covid-19, European securitization is undergoing a regulatory rejuvenation, as the European Commission turns towards structured products as a solution to the coming wave of NPLs. Meanwhile, the market for synthetic ABS is being given a second look to help free bank balance sheets across Europe and spur lending to the real economy. Over the summer, the market saw the report from the senior forum on the Capital Markets Union, which included a number of recommendations on regulatory adjustments to improve the functioning of securitization in Europe. More recently the European Commission put forward a capital markets economic recovery package including measures related to securitization. The Commission has proposed extending the STS framework to synthetic securitizations or on-balance-sheet securitizations. The Commission has also put forward proposals to remove regulatory obstacles to the securitization of NPLs including changes to the regulatory capital treatment.

The European Commission’s proposed new approach to non-performing loan securitization may encourage more deals to come out in fully placed format, accelerating development of the market. But the revised rules still hurt banks which hold part of the structures, and which form the vast majority of the market today, as the Commission took its lead from the Basel Committee rather than its own regulators.

MEPs have asked the European Commission to come up with a legislative proposal for a new class of bank debt, known as ‘European Secured Notes’, as they push the executive to fast track its work on establishing a Capital Markets Union.

Wartchow heads to Pemberton — Barclays names permanent equities heads — Bonilla joins Kartesia