Commercial lending

Banks reported decent loan growth in the spring and early summer as businesses rushed to draw down credit lines and tap the Paycheck Protection Program. But demand has been muted since, and bankers can only guess when it will pick back up.

The prospective payout is so alluring to investors that they’ve placed three times as many orders as bonds and loans available for sale. That allowed Delta to boost the size of the deal from an original $6.5 billion, enough for the company to rule out the need for any federal aid.

The captive-finance lender for U.S. Mercedes-Benz deals closed on its second transaction of the year, and the first auto-lease ABS to price since July.

A new report on bank-held commercial real estate and C&I loans indicates troubled borrowers may be skipping payments on loans they won't be able to refinance or extend over the next year, leading to a potential wave of defaults over the next four to six quarters.

Liberty Lending, Upstart Network and Regional Management Corp. are looking to price bonds backed by pools of unsecured consumer loans, amid market worries about the sectors' potential challenges during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Sept. 4-10

Some of the cures were the result of short-term remedies and could reverse as relief measures end.

A three-month drought in CRE CLO issuance came to an end this week with new deals from Exantas and A10 Capital.

The ratings agency reports that the MPL industry might reckon with a potential spike in defaults as borrowers are rolled out of two- and three-month COVID-19 hardship programs.

The Senate Banking Committee met Wednesday to review central bank lending facilities such as the Main Street Lending Program, which provides bank-issued loans to middle-market firms. But some lawmakers on the panel said the focus of pandemic relief has been misplaced.