CDOs

Babson Capital Europe appointed Andrew Godson as head of distribution.

At a time when most large investment banks are slashing their fixed-income teams, Cantor Fitzgerald is making a hiring push in its debt capital markets group. Shawn Matthews, who heads the group and is based in New York, runs a sales and trading desk that already boasts more than 200 salesmen and traders. Bank Loan Report sat down with Matthews recently to discuss the group's expansion.

The impending summer slowdown is nothing new for the CDO market, which has already seen a slow pace of issuance for almost a year now.

Activity may be down sharply in CDOs, but there could be early signs of life returning to the CLO market, which in turn may signal a pickup in demand for leveraged loans in coming months, according to a market participant who is involved with trust services for the securitization market.

The exit of CDO chiefs from the major investment banks continue. ASR confirmed that Sebastiano Riva, the co-head of Lehman Brother's CLO group, has left the firm.

Credit Suisse recently reorganized its structured products group and CDO group. These changes come after the firm shut down origination activity, cut positions and reduced its risk exposure over the past year, according to an internal memo at the bank.

Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets launched its latest SME CLO. This is the bank's fourth balance sheet securitization from its commercial loan book.

Credit Suisse recently reorganized its structured products group. These changes come after the firm shut down origination activity, cut positions and reduced its risk exposure over the past year, according to an internal memo at the bank.

Merrill Lynch has tapped Doug Mallach as head of U.S. fixed income, currencies and commodities asset management.

Trouble at Calyon's structured finance subsidiary Omicron Investment Management could serve as a harbinger for the further woes awaiting CDO managers.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the insurance financial strength ratings of CIFG Guaranty, CIFG Europe, and CIFG Assurance North America, collectively known as CIFG, to 'Ba2' from 'A1'. The rating agency kept the ratings under review with direction uncertain.

In a hurried effort to shine light on the credit derivatives market - viewed as potentially the next domino to fall in the credit-market crisis - a new project by accounting standard setters could require firms to disclose more details about their exposure to the over-the-counter instruments currently on their books.

April remittance reports released last week reflected a continued dip in the 30- and 60-day delinquency buckets in most trusts across all the indices, Barclays Capital analysts reported.

Responding to investor gripes about lack of transparency and ratings instability for CDO transactions, Fitch Ratings unveiled new global rating criteria for corporate CDOs last week.

MJX Asset Management last week closed Veer Cash Flow CLO, a newly restructured incarnation of a market value transaction, Veer Loan Opportunities Fund.

Six months after several of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s top fixed-income executives were ousted from their jobs, another round of shakeouts is underway, which involve many of the bank's senior executives in fixed income.

Moody's Investors Service announced the appointment of Jonathan Polansky, who is now the group managing director of the rating agency's asset finance group, to the newly created role of structured finance global surveillance coordinator. In his new role, Polanksy will work closely with the rating agency's surveillance and line of business managers to monitor outstanding Moody's-rated structured transactions.

Six months after several of Merrill Lynch & Co.’s top fixed-income executives were ousted from their jobs, another round of shakeouts is underway, which involve many of the bank’s senior executives in fixed income.

Tom White, currently head of global markets, will be transitioning to a new leadership role as president of the principal capital group at Bank of America.

McGraw-Hill Cos. announced today that its quarterly earnings fell 44% due to business dropping at its Standard & Poor's unit.