CDOs

PF2 Securities Evaluations increased its analytical tools for CDOs to prepare for changing Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requirements.

The ability of managers of investment grade corporate synthetic CDOs to trade has been dramatically reduced as a result of structural constraints, a lack of market liquidity and unprecedented spread widening, Fitch Ratings analysts said.

Inter-dealer broker Phoenix Partners hired emerging markets specialist Niels Nooy as European head of emerging markets.

The European Commission has taken a step toward modifying the risk weighting of complex securitization products under Basel II.

Fitch Ratings has reorganized its securitization leadership after the departure of former head of U.S. structured finance John Bonfiglio.

NewOak Capital appointed Samuel Warren as director of the firm’s RMBS structuring solutions team and to complement its RMBS and residential loans credit management capabilities.

Fitch Ratings downgraded 78 tranches (69 public ratings and nine private ratings) and affirmed 18 tranches (all public) from 38 European structured finance CDOs.

For several months now market participants have speculated whether the government would intervene in the CLO market.

At a time when a number of investment managers are selling loan portfolios to recoup whatever they can, BlueMountain Capital Management, a privately owned investment management firm, has launched the BlueMountain Corporate Loan Fund, a fund that will focus on distressed U.S. leveraged loans.

CDO shop Aladdin Capital Holdings started a film financing unit and a broker-dealer as part of an expansion effort outside of CDOs, according to a Bloomberg report.

Fitch Ratings expects that in the near to medium term, retail will represent a growing proportion of overall defaults in the CMBS sector.

Standard & Poor's will be supplementing its process for gathering information about the systems, personnel, and other resources available to managers of S&P-rated CLO deals.

A growing number of companies are looking to amend their covenants to give them the flexibility to avoid a default.

Securities Litigation and Consulting Group (SLCG) hired Joseph Prendergast as principal in its Virginia office.

As part of the U.S. government's Financial Stability Plan, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board just announced additional terms that would clarify the application of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

VTB Capital structured the first rated cash CLO of non-SME corporate loans and bonds with the ultimate risk located in the Russian Federation.

The U.K. government announced further details regarding the implementation of its Asset Protection Scheme.

The outlook for the securitization market in 2009 is bleak. Problems related to ABS are manifold and a recovery of the securitization market is not yet in sight. On the one hand, the future prospects of the securitization business highly depend on a stabilization of the financial industry overall. On the other hand, the credit cycle downturn will clearly test the solidity of European structured finance notes. Uncertainties related to ABS are high. An apparent example for the current market dislocation is the CLO sector - European leveraged loan CLOs are on the radar screens as undercollateralization is imminent.

Steven Hilfer has joined Experian as senior director of business development to support the firm’s capital markets business.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's announcement of the revamped Financial Stability Plan proved to be a showstopper during the American Securitization Forum's (ASF) annual industry conference held earlier this month in Las Vegas. But reactions were mixed.