People
Tara Anderson has been made a business development officer at Wells Fargo Corporate Trust. Anderson will focus on the public market, specifically credit cards. She will report to Rob Guimont, vice president of business development
Mark Opila and Payam Hakimi are no longer at J.P. Morgan Chase. Prior to the merger, Opila was on the ABS sales desk at Chase, while Hakimi was a vice president and quantitative specialist in the structured finance group at J.P. Morgan.
Glen Stein has joined Miami, Fla-based BayView Financial Trading Group as head of non-real estate finance. Stein will report to David Quint, Bayview's president and COO. BayView purchases, originates and securitizes residential and commercial real estate loans. Stein will be responsible for expanding BayView's presence in non-real estate assets such as consumer and business receivables and leases. Stein was previously senior vice president of structured finance at UniCapital Corp. and an investment banker at Prudential Securities.
Fitch has made several staffing changes in its asset-backed group. Both Claire J. Mezzanotte and Deborah R. Seife have been promoted to managing directors. Mezzanotte works in the student loans area, while Seife heads up asset-backed commercial paper.
David C. Demilt and Darryl J. Osojnak have been promoted to senior directors. Meanwhile, Donna (Barlow) DiDonato, Richard C. Drason, Robert C. Franciscus, Paul McCarthy, Matthew J. Murphy and Thomas H. Reese were all made directors.
Greenwich Capital Markets is expanding its ABS team with the addition of three new individuals. Rob West joined as senior vice president of mortgage-backed securities sales, after being with PaineWebber for five years. Lisa Pendergast was hired as senior vice president of CMBS research, after serving 14 years at Prudential Securities. Evan Mitnick will be vice president in the asset-backed finance group, after seven years at Pru. West will work out of the firm's Chicago office, while. Pendergast and. Mitnick will be based in Greenwich, CT.
News
Fannie Mae's first subordinated debt issuance was met with strong demand from investors, though the $1.5 billion offering of 10-year notes were sold at a lower yield than planned. The sale is part of a broader effort to placate critics in Congress that its size poses a risk to the financial markets.
Standard & Poor's Rating Agency has lowered the BBB- rating on Industrias Penoles S.A. de C.V.'s (Penoles) $380 million 8.39% structured silver payable notes to BB-. The downgrade is a result of the lowered rating on Penoles's local currency corporate credit rating to BBB- from BBB. The company has experienced a reduction in cash flow as a result of the lower prices of metals produced by the company, the straight correlation of margins with the strength of the peso and Mexico's increased concern for environmental issues.
The Bank of New York has expanded its trust services to include the commercial mortgage real estate industry. The bank said it recently added several trust professionals with commercial mortgage-backed securities experience, enhanced its analytical software, and expanded its document custody services. The Bank of New York was already a servicer in the CMBS market through its BNY Asset Solutions subsidiary.
The Telefnica del Peru Grantor Trust certificates in the amount of U.S. $150 million were downgraded by Moody's Investor Serivces to Baa1 from A3 in December. The Baa1 rating is also on review for a possible further downgrade. The rating change came as a result of the deterioration of credit quality of the telephone settlement providers since they are responsible for payments made to Telefnica del Peru (TDP) which then makes payments to the certificate holders. The rating is not expected to change as a result of the deterioration of credit quality among telephone providers.
The Federal Republic of Brazil upped Brazil's local currency rating to BB+ from BB and the foreign currency to BB- from B+. Now, Standard & Poor's Rating Agency has raised it's BBB+ rating on CVRD Finance Ltd.'s uninsured future flow export receivables-backed notes 2001 due 2007 from BB-. The rating agency also affirmed its AAA rating on the MBIA insured notes. The rating change was instigated by the strength of the Brazil-based iron ore and pellets exporter, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), ample overcollateralization levels, structural enhancements with sovereign risk protection and solid legal strength in the structure.
Standard & Poor's Rating Services has removed RG Receivables Co. Ltd.'s $100 million 9.6% notes from CreditWatch and upgraded the notes to B+ from CCC+. The transaction was originally assigned a BB- rating from S&P. The RG Receivable notes are backed by credit card receivables generated from the sale of airline tickets in the U.S. to Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense S.A. (Varig). The rating, which is heavily linked to the underlying performance risk of Varig, was upgraded as a result of the steps Varig has taken to reduce the burden of its debt. Varig has also established an improved operating performance.
The Senate confirmed Mel Martinez to be the secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Martinez has pledged to make homeownership opportunities for minorities and lower-income families one of his highest priorities at HUD. He also noted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could provide mortgage financing for the homeownership initiatives proposed by President Bush during the campaign. Candidate Bush proposed using tax credits to build and renovate affordable single-family homes and to allow low-income families to use housing vouchers as a down payment on a home.
The Federal Housing Finance Board is giving potential commenters more time to object to Washington Mutual Bank's application to become a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. WaMu wants to become a member of the Dallas FHLBank through its acquisition of Bank United in Houston while retaining its membership in the San Francisco FHLBank. So far, no requests to intervene have been filed.
Freddie Mac has announced guidelines for its Internet-based Dutch auctions of two- and three-year Reference Notes. The offerings, which begin Feb. 9, will mark the first time new term-debt global issues have been priced and distributed by a government-sponsored enterprise via Dutch auction, Freddie Mac said.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has announced a tentative decision to eliminate the pooling-of-interests method of accounting for business combinations. While pooling is used in only a small number of transactions, many mortgage and banking mergers and acquisitions use this form of accounting, instead of the purchase method. FASB is working on an exposure draft for the accounting of goodwill. Once this is issued, a final statement on business combinations will be issued in late June, the board said. Until then, the pooling method is still permitted.
