Europe

Structured credit firm ZAIS Group has hired two new executives to spearhead its collateralized loans obligation and other asset-backed businesses out of London.

The UK’s Towd Point Mortgage Funding trust has issued its latest transaction consisting of a large swathe of pre-crisis home loans still beset by delinquencies, or encumbered by variable rates and second-liens.

E-CARAT 7 PLC is the latest British auto loan securitization of new and used Vauxhall Motors-branded vehicle loans originated by GMAC’s UK affiliate. The UK trust will issue GBP £416.7 million (US$468.18 million) in three classes of senior and subordinate notes secured by the loans.

The risk premium that investors demand for holding CLOs continues to decline as refinancing activity continues to dominate the new issuance, and the trend looks set to continue heading into the final two months of the year.

A German consumer finance arm of Crédit Agricole is securitizing its third rated pool of unsecured consumer loans in a €1.3 billion (US$1.48 billion) transaction.

Investcorp is buying the debt management business of 3i Group for £222 million (US$270.6 million, giving the Bahrain-based private equity firm with one of the larger cross-border CLO management operations.

The debt consolidation loans originated by GE are backed by French homes, in a deal arranged by Morgan Stanley and the second true-sale securitization of debt consolidation receivables. The deal builds on a smaller initial €871.2 million SapphireOne issuance in July.

In a quarterly survey by the New York-based International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers, 57% of respondents expect wider credit spreads in U.S. investment grade debt and 70% in U.S. high yield bonds and leveraged loans over the final three months of the year. Also for the fourth quarter, 66% see rising levels of corporate defaults.

The Florida Public Service Commission has a beef with Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings, which all characterize bonds backed by utility fees as a kind of structured finance, rather than as corporate bonds.

Hawksmoor Mortgages 2016-2 plc is a British sterling-pound denominated RMBS with a £1.124 billion pool balance secured by mortgages to residential properties in the UK extended to 12,153 borrowers. Eighty percent were originated by GE's UK home-lending arms that have since sold off portfolios and exited the British mortgage scene.