Emerging markets

Ogier has opened an office in Shanghai, China in an attempt to increase its network and its presence across the globe, according to a press release by the firm.

The U.S. Congress and U.S. regulatory agencies have imposed or proposed broad-based and aggressive laws and rulemaking in response to the failure of securitizations directly or indirectly backed by U.S. subprime residential mortgage loans originated in the several years prior to the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Notwithstanding this aggressive response, there is no empirical evidence that transactions backed by other types of assets, including asset-backed securities (ABS) of foreign issuers, have been prone to such failures or merit coverage in the same regulatory scheme as applies to securitizations backed by subprime residential mortgage loans.

From Brussels to D.C., the season of powwows is here, and ASR's editors have certainly been getting around.

Brazil is one of the brighter spots in global ABS, a different world from the regulatory anxieties, debt overhang and slower origination plaguing other countries.

Regulation was a main focus at the recently concluded Global ABS 2011 conference held in Brussels in mid June. One of the issues was Solvency II, the proposed new European regulatory regime that, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service, is probably going to increase regulatory capital requirements for both European Union and European Economic Area insurers and reinsurers when it is implemented in 2013.

Garanti Bank has closed its transaction comprising two new series of notes worth $225 million and €50 million ($72 million). The series of notes were issued under the firm's diversified payment rights (DPRs) program called Garanti Diversified Payment Rights Finance Co.

Mexican housing authority the Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF) announced a plan June 2 to discontinue the origination of inflation-indexed mortgages, or UDI loans, in 2011.

Volkswagen is looking to sell its ABS in China by the end of 2012, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Japan-based mobile telecommunications carrier called Softbank Mobile Corp. is marketing JPY 5.126 billion ($64 million) of senior trust certificates that are backed by handset installment sales receivables.

Global agribusiness and food company Bunge Limited recently closed a program for the securitization of its trade receivables to the tune of $700 million, according to a press release from Finacity Corporation, which was the program structurer and administrator.

The Argentine province of Misiones is making unwelcome noise in the securitization market, as it seeks to expand the application of a stamp tax on trust agreements and securitization trusts regardless of where the documents are processed, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Argentina’s provinces are re-enacting the past. In the last year, three have publicly issued deals backed in part by revenue from a federal government institution, recalling a time when securitizing co-participation revenue from the central government was all the rage. That was before the crisis of 2001-2002.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision finalized its review of the Basel III standard for capital treatment for counterparty credit risk in bilateral trades and plans to modify the risk weighting of credit valuation adjustment (CVA), which is the risk of loss caused by changes in the credit spread of a counterparty due to changes in its credit quality.

Infrastructure struck a chord with many participants at the Securitization and Structured Finance in Latin America (SiLAS) conference in late May, organized by Euromoney Seminars and LatinFinance.

No conference on Latin American structured finance would be complete without a discussion of diversified payment rights (DPRs), the asset class of electronic money flowing through banks that boasts a default rate lower than triple-A U.S. corporates.

No one would dispute that Latin America has done a remarkable job over the past several years averting the catastrophes that have befallen Western Europe and the U.S. Likewise some countries in the region have sustained a respectable level of securitization activity, a point of pride made by a number of participants at the Securitization and Structured Finance in Latin America (SiLAS) conference hosted by Euromoney Seminars and LatinFinance in late May.

Brazil was a locus of hope for participants at the Securitization and Structured Finance in Latin America (SiLAS) conference organized by Euromoney Seminars and LatinFinance, as the economy keeps growing apace and sectors such as infrastructure and energy, among others, have an enormous appetite for funding.

Sharjah Islamic Bank returned to the international Sukuk market for the first time since its 2006 inaugural issuance. The transaction was oversubscribed by more than nine times.The $400 million, fixed-rate Sukuk certificates, which are due in 2016 yielded 4.715% annually. The structure comprises the sale and purchase of non-real-estate-based ijara assets by the trustee, which are then managed by Sharjah Islamic as the trustee's agent and the certificateholders.The Sukuk certificates were assigned a rating of 'BBB+' by Fitch Ratings and 'BBB+' by Standard & Poor’s and were globally distributed with demand from investors in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.Th offering's joint lead managers were HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Liquidity House. The co-lead managers were Qatar Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Qatar First Investment Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Al Hilal Bank PJSC. Clifford Chance was the issuing bank's adviser on the deal.

South African RMBS issuer Investec Bank is refinancing notes under its program called Private Residential Mortgages (PRM) Ltd - Series 2.

StormHarbour has made two new senior appointments in Hong Kong that will bolster its Asia-Pacific capital markets business.