CDOs/CLOs

Fitch Ratings last week released for comment new interest rates stress criteria for structured finance transactions involving USD Libor. The key difference between the proposed methodology and the way Fitch currently applies interest rate stress criteria to ratings is a switch from historical data to the use of forward-looking swap market data - an information source widely employed across the structured finance market.

After resolving a few accounting issues, including the costs of utility poles, the Florida Public Service Commission gave the go ahead for Florida Power & Light to finance its costs of storm recovery from 2004 to 2005 through a securitization of about $700 million, after estimating that storm recovery costs reached $1.13 billion.

Loan sale advisor DebtX has been awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its online loan sale and debt trading exchange program. This protects DebtX's innovations relating to due diligence, loan sales and debt trading that has played an important role in transforming the way commercial loans are bought and sold, DebtX said in a statement.

The non-consolidation of special purpose entities with the seller of financial assets is a prerequisite of every properly structured securitization transaction.

More consumers are using electronic disbursement services through the telephone and Internet to make last minute payments on credit cards, mortgages and other bills, according to a survey completed in April.

Responding to market participants' demand for more precise and granular measures of risk, Fitch Ratings conducted a study of the level of program-wide credit enhancement (PWCE) with a sample of large, diverse multi-seller ABCP programs in the U.S. Using VECTOR CP as the analytical tool, the study suggests that many partially-supported multiseller ABCP programs in the U.S. maintain excess levels of PWCE. This information should be of comfort to investors as it confirms the low level of risk in established U.S. multiseller programs. In addition, multiseller ABCP program sponsors may find the application of VECTOR CP useful, as it can compliment their internal credit scoring and support their risk and regulatory management objectives. A more detailed discussion with respect to the modeling assumptions and results will be presented in a report to be published by end of the month.

The Carlyle Group announced last week that it has hired John Stomber as a managing director in the leveraged finance group in New York. Stomber previously worked at Cerberus Capital Management as a managing director focused on structured finance transactions and deals with banking and securities firms.

Gun Hill Road, a $600 million securitization of revenues from film copyrights, received decent reviews last seek. The positive feedback comes several months after Deutsche Bank underwrote the transaction last January. The bank is also preparing a follow-up transaction, called Gun Hill Road II.

Babson Capital Management has closed the Connecticut Valley Structured Credit CDO III, a $400 million collateralized debt obligation (CDO) that will consist primarily of BBB rated CDO debt securities with a focus on the collateralized loan obligation sector. Citigroup Global Markets arranged the transaction.

While most industry participants have come to the conclusion that the U.S. housing market is unlikely to post rapid price declines on a nation-wide scale, Standard and Poor's last week released an updated simulation of how the RMBS market would perform in such a scenario - otherwise known as the ominous housing bubble burst.