BofA dominates in 1Q lead manager rankings for public deals

Sometimes, originators just want to handle their issues on their own terms - and from their own shelves. Such independent thinking, argue some, is what characterized a lot of securitization transactions in the first quarter and changed the lineup of top-ranked lead underwriters.

Based on preliminary data from the ASR Scorecard database, which is being referenced for the first time for the rankings, Banc of America Securities topped the lead manager ranking for all domestic public deals. With $31.7 billion in mandates, the bank walked away with an 11% share of the total issuance market, which came to about $179.6 billion.

The investment bank made a clear improvement in its rankings, moving up from the third place in the same period a year ago, according to historical ASR Scorecard data. Citigroup Global Markets, which took first place last year, essentially switched places with Banc of America and ended up in third place at the end of the first quarter with $28.6 billion in deals. Sandwiched between the two was Morgan Stanley & Co., with 10% of all mandates amounting to $30 billion in business.

Bank of America, the parent company, made a huge commitment to its overall investment banking business with significant hires in 2005 and 2006, Jefferson Harralson, a managing director and bank analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said.

"That translated to market share improvement in 2007," Harralson said. "It is not by accident. They have made some major investments."

Aside from the changes in the top-three lineup, several banks saw a shift away from the use of dealer shelves for bringing securitized notes to market, especially among mortgage-backed securities, a market source familiar with the banks in the ranking said. Whole loan prices essentially were flat in the first quarter, so when issuers wanted to come to market with their deals, many decided to use their own originator shelves and not dealer shelves, which are run by the banks. That preference significantly affected the first-quarter rankings.

"If the whole loan prices are not there, then originators would rather keep the residuals," he said.

In another change from previous years' lead manager league table coverage, ASR reported lead manager rankings from its in-house database product, the Scorecards. As part of ASR's preliminary results for the first quarter, each manager received full credit for deals on which it acted as co-lead manager, instead of receiving only proportional credit for its participation. It should be noted that the data from the ASR Scorecard database excludes CDOs deals for this particular run.

As for the rest of the rankings, JPMorgan Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities completed $26.9 billion and $25.7 billion in deals, respectively. Barclays Capital made great strides up the rankings ladder. Its $17.1 billion in lead underwriting business landed it in sixth place this year, up from 13th place at the end of first quarter 2006.

Rounding out the top 10 in the first-quarter rankings were RBS Greenwich Capital, with $15.9 billion in deals, which edged out eighth place finisher Lehman Brothers, by just $28 million; Countrywide Securities Corp., which did $15.7 billion in deals to place ninth; and Credit Suisse, which placed 10th with $15 billion in business.

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