Commercial lending

Shared national credit balances rose 5% last year, and the percentage of at-risk loans nearly doubled. Regulators point out that banks have stashed away extra capital, but a lot will depend on the speed of the economic recovery and the performance of nonbank loans.

Companies most impacted by the economic crisis have seen their borrowings, including leveraged loans, considered “non-pass,” rise to 29.5% in last year’s third quarter from 13.5% in the same period a year earlier.

Just over 12 billion euros ($14.6 billion) of new issue, refi and reset paper has priced so far this year, surpassing a previous high of 7.3 billion euros in the first two months of 2018.

New York-based Briarcliffe will provide fundraising services to existing asset managers looking to raise as much as $1.5 billion

Firms are moving money into loans and notes that offer floating interest rates. Unlike the fixed payments on most conventional bonds, those on floating-rate debt go up as benchmark rates do, helping preserve their value.

Citigroup unexpectedly lost a legal battle to recover half a billion dollars it sent Revlon lenders, after the embarrassing blunder forced it to answer to regulators and tighten its internal controls.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Feb. 5-11

The eight-year-old finance company closed on its fourth overall securitization, in what was its largest ABS bond issuance to date.

The biggest U.S. banks reduced the portion of their collective balance sheets they’re dedicating to loans to a new low, extending a trend that’s seen the largest lenders put less and less of their firepower behind everyday borrowers.

The rise in sales comes as risk premiums for new transactions have tightened to pre-pandemic levels, marking a stark turnaround in a sector with heavy exposure to company bankruptcies caused by the lockdowns.

A consensual deal cuts legal costs and hastens a Chapter 11 exit, but plans block possible restructuring proposals that can curb cash payouts to lower-ranking creditors.

Environmental, social and governance issues topped the list of risk managers’ concerns in a Deloitte poll .

AMC and American Airlines took advantage of surprise stock-price surges to cash out shares and raise liquidity for possible debt reduction — a massive stroke of good fortune for the companies as well as their creditors.

The struggling movie-theater chain is among once-risky debt investments reaping big gains after day traders helped fuel the sudden stock surge.

Cheap funding costs have extended a lifeline to many troubled companies, slowing the pace of U.S. bankruptcy filings, but shops, offices and hotels have been particularly vulnerable to the pandemic this month.

About $16 billion across 43 deals in both new-issue and refinancing has prompted analysts into making early revisions to raise their initial volume forecasts.

The online lender is looking to price its second securitization deal of 2021, following last week's closing of a pass-through notes offering via its master trust.

Declining month-over-month delinquency levels and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations potentially give hope to more normalized economic activity.

The two deals will add to the pipeline of 2021 prime auto-lease transactions led earlier this month by Hyundai Capital America.

More may be on the horizon as lenders lose patience with defaulting property owners.