Europe

The earthquake that struck central Italy on Aug. 25 will have limited impact on bonds backed by residential mortgages or loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, according to DBRS.

Moody’s Investors Service has assigned provisional ratings to five classes of notes in STORM 2016-II B.V., a €1.15 billion pooling of 5,729 30-year home loans to consumers in The Netherlands. The sizes of the Euro-denominated notes are to be determined.

The U.K. government will redeem £3 billion ($3.9 billion) of bonds backed by mortgages from rescued lender Bradford & Bingley, paving the way for a potential sale of the loans

Europe’s speculative-grade corporate default rate is expected to rise slightly by next year amid lingering credit instability, slow economic growth and a growing concentration of companies in the lowest levels of junk-grade ratings.

DBRS named Nichola James as co-head of sovereign ratings. At the same time, Fergus McCormick, who had been head of sovereign ratings since 2010, will now be chief economist and co-head of sovereign ratings.

Heathrow Funding, a corporate securitization vehicle that issues bonds raising proceeds for London’s Heathrow Airport and related rail link services, is issuing £400 million (US$520 million) in new notes for the airport to repay upcoming debt maturities.

Hawksmoor Mortgages 2016-1 PLC is a collection of U.K. mortgage loans. More than 80% were originated by GE Money’s home lending and mortgage units, with about one-third consisting of aged, pre-crisis loans issued in 2007.

Allen & Overy has added a team of five partners specialized in leveraged financings to its New York office.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are keeping skin in the first risk retention compliant CMBS.

Standard & Poor’s has assigned a preliminary ‘A’ rating to a €1.5 billion four-year revolving securitization of auto, motorcycle and trailer loans originated by Santander Consumer Bank AG.