CDOs

Credit ratings have historically played a relatively small role in the European leveraged loan market, which through the 1990s was comprised of privately held companies borrowing almost exclusively from banks.

Standard & Poor's changed some of its ratings for National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. (NPFG), the municipal bond insuring subsidiary of MBIA.

Radian Guaranty is seeking waivers in 12 states of risk-to-capital requirements, even though it does have $600 million in capital at the parent company level available to downstream to the mortgage insurer, chief financial officer Bob Quint said during a presentation at the FBR Capital Markets Fall Investor Conference.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a proposal Tuesday that would remove references to credit ratings from its regulations, and posted guidance to help banks evaluate investment risks.The Dodd-Frank Act requires federal agencies to review regulations that required banks to use credit ratings to asses the creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument. Under the law, regulators must modify the rules to remove the references to credit ratings, and substitute them with an alternative standard.

Lloyds Banking Group has closed its Australian leveraged finance group, a spokesman confirmed.

The proposed changes to the Standard & Poor's counterparty criteria make them generally more lenient, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analysts said in a report released today.

Moody’s Investors Service launched a private loan ratings service for issuers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets, the rating agency said today.

Bond insurer Ambac Financial has pushed back the voting deadline on a reorganization plan and a plan confirmation hearing.

Alternative investment manager the Carlyle Group is expanding its lending business with the acquisition of Churchill Financial, a provider of debt financing to middle market companies.

CIFC Corp. is planning to roll out a new CLO, possibly by the end of the year, and is also looking to sell or call an existing CLO, the asset management company disclosed in a regulatory filing late Monday.

The CREL CDO delinquencies rose to 12.5% in October from 12% the prior month, according to the latest Fitch Ratings index.

MBIA presented a brighter picture of its future on Thursday.

With CLO issuance on the rise, it’s easy to forget that there are a number of regulatory threats to this important source of liquidity for corporate loans.

The RMBS and related CDO sectors lead the pack in both realized and expected future credit losses from U.S. structured finance issuances, according to Fitch Ratings.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is forecasting CLO issuance for 2012 of $15 billion, only marginally higher than the level it anticipates for the current year.

U.S. alternative asset manager Black Diamond Capital Management has acquired GSC Group’s London team, a player in the European CLO market, the company said in a release.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has priced a $405 million CLO for Sankaty Advisors, according to Bloomberg.

Citigroup has sold a $1 billion CLO for Guggenheim Investment Management, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The $2.2 billion term loan backing Kinetic Concepts' buyout was probably not the best test case for using shorter dated loans to appeal to maturing close, a banker involved with the transaction said today.

The list of banks suing MBIA just got smaller. Wells Fargo Bank, formerly Wachovia Bank, pulled out of three lawsuits against the insurer that challenged the New York State Insurance Department’s approval of the restructuring of MBIA Insurance Corp. into two entities.