CDOs/CLOs

With the passing of the fifth anniversary of the onset of the crisis, Fitch Ratings clarifies that the structured finance market is “not the culprit” of the economic downfall that hit in July 2007.

For years, U.S. banks, and especially the largest ones, have dreaded the seemingly inevitable arrival of new and more burdensome regulatory capital requirements. U.S. banking regulators' proposal to revamp those requirements, issued in mid-June, should dispel many of their fears, although the proposal is likely to result in extra work for U.S. banks and may put them at a disadvantage to global competitors in the ABS market.

A sharp pick up in the issuance of CLOs this year hasn't resulted in much reshuffling in the ranks of credits held by these deals. In fact, there was no movement in the top five names between the first and second quarters.

"Industry consolidation outweighs new issuance as the key driver for shifts in the manager rankings, in the U.S. and Europe," Moody's analysts wrote in the newly released July edition of "CLO Interest," which includes CLO manager league tables as of June 30, 2012, updated for the first time since August 2011.

As the New York Federal Reserve moves closer to completing the winding down of its Maiden Lane (ML) vehicles, investors face a falloff in inventory volumes. This poses a further challenge in this yield-starved environment.

Scheduled to launch later this year, the European DataWarehouse will, for the first time, house loan-level data on a wide range of loans backing the region's ABS. The European Central Bank is the information repository's biggest client and champion.

Marathon Asset Management has appointed investment services provider BNY Mellon as trustee, collateral administrator, paying agent and calculation agent for its $356 million CLO.

Franklin Templeton Investments launched a new global bond fund that will focus on global debt, including emerging markets, a firm spokesman confirmed.

The standardization of future CLOs' defined terms and structural features can hasten the sector's primary issuance process, Fitch Ratings said in a note released this morning.