CDOs

Issuance of U.S. collateralized loan obligations climbed to $8.4 billion (via 17 deals) in October, the highest monthly figure since June 2015, according to Thomson Reuters LPC.

This year, industry heavyweights Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Quicken all burst onto the digital lending scene. These big firms may have been latecomers, but their timing was still good, since they came to market amid rising doubts about many of the online lending sector's early entrants.

The risk premium that investors demand for holding CLOs continues to decline as refinancing activity continues to dominate the new issuance, and the trend looks set to continue heading into the final two months of the year.

Investcorp is buying the debt management business of 3i Group for £222 million (US$270.6 million, giving the Bahrain-based private equity firm with one of the larger cross-border CLO management operations.

Managers are refinancing at least 13 collateralized loan obligations totaling $9 billion as the deadline to comply with risk retention approaches.

Amherst Pierpont Securities has named former Jefferies executive Erez Biala to form and direct a new collateralized loan obligation trading and origination platform at the fixed-income broker-dealer.

September was the busiest month for CLO issuance since mid-2015, accoriding to Thomson Reuters L

Nine global banks are testing blockchain and smart contract technologies to see if they can improve the syndicated loan market.

In October, roughly $40 billion collateralized loan obligations will become callable, giving managers with a required payment date only a month in which to refinance before the risk retention requirement kicks in.

The monthly total of $5.9 billion in new collateralized loan obligation issuance in August made slight gains over July’s output, but year-to-date issuance remains sharply off 2015’s pace.

High investor demand for collateralized loan obligation paper is squeezing spreads to their tightest levels in more than a year, even as improving monthly CLO issuance has reached its highest level of 2016.

Mid-market commercial direct lender Newstar Financial is losing one of its founding members and a key figure in establishing its multi-faceted securitization platform with the announced retirement of treasurer and asset management head John Frishkopf.

The recent and ongoing upheaval in Libor rates is producing divergent outlooks on debt and equity positions in CLOs, says the Loan Syndications and Trading Association.

Rules requiring CLO managers to keep skin in the game of their deals has taken a toll on smaller firms. But the resulting thinning of the ranks has created room for some new players that are better capitalized, including insurance companies.

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association has finalized a rule designed to speed up settlement of leveraged loans.

The rating agency in the second quarter upgraded 149 tranches of senior, mezzanine or subordinate notes across 49 CLOs. By comparison, it downgraded just 13 tranches of six CLOs.

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

Despite efforts by regulators and banks to improve underwriting of commercial leveraged loans, the number of troubled large syndicated credits jumped again this year, according to a report released Friday by federal regulators.

EJF Capital is marketing $333.75 million of notes backed by trust preferred securities issued by banks and insurance companies.