CDOs/CLOs

Standard & Poor's yesterday lowered its ratings on 49 tranches from 11 U.S. cash flow and hybrid CDO deals.

With the monoline industry continuing to struggle for survival, albeit with a weak pulse, and the ABS CDO sector almost flatlining, CDO hedge agreements with the monoline industry have been a cause for concern within the structured finance market.

Last week proved to be another period of slow issuance for the primary market, and trading in the secondary was not that much more active.

As summer comes to a close and all of Europe has seemingly taken a holiday from the toughest months for the securitization market, it's likely that when players return they'll find that the European market is no closer to recovery.

Sorin Capital Management announced that Matt Chasin officially joined the firm on Aug. 11 as chief operating officer, partner and member of the investment committee.

Analysts have adopted a bearish stance on German cash mezzanine CLOs, saying they expect the deteriorating German economic landscape and shifting rating methodology to further pressure performance in this asset class.

Fitch Ratings said on Thursday that certain classes of notes issued across 43 CDOs backed all or in part by trust preferred securities issued by banks are on Rating Watch Negative.

Standard & Poor's appointed David Jacob as executive managing director and head of structured finance ratings reporting to Vickie Tillman, executive vice president at the rating agency.

Standard & Poor's cut the ratings of 50 tranches from 11 US cash flow and hybrid CDO transactions. The downgraded tranches have a total issuance amount of $5.502 billion.

The European Securitization Forum (ESF) has remained steadfast about its belief that the European securitization market will return. However, as the credit turmoil intensifies, the beleaguered market looks less likely to be fixed in the short term.