Investments

The Financial Stability Oversight Council has struggled to find its footing since its creation in Dodd-Frank. The Treasury secretary has signaled a more aggressive role for the panel, including reviving its authority to target nonbank behemoths.

Loanpal, a provider of residential-solar loans in the U.S., is planning an initial public offering this year that could value the company at more than $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bankruptcy courts saw a greater-than-average number of filings in the first quarter, though a year-on-year decline highlights the impact of cheap cash flowing to troubled borrowers.

For investment firms that profit by buying the debt of troubled companies, it looked like the opportunity of a lifetime: a $1 trillion pile of distressed bonds and loans in the Americas alone as the pandemic sent markets into meltdown last March.

The leveraged loan market has long been the favored financing source for private equity firms looking to juice returns on corporate takeovers and to reward themselves with payouts before selling their acquisitions.

Kovensky, whose departure from the posts is effective April 1, will stay on as a board member at the $17 billion credit management division of Onex Corp. Co-CEO Jason New will become head of credit as part of the transition, while Peter Zaltz will become chief investment officer.

Yellen announced she has revived a hedge fund working group so agencies can “share data, identify risks and work to strengthen our financial system."

A white paper released Monday by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee outlined how issuers could (and perhaps should) model new floating-rate transactions using a compounded version of the interbank overnight rate instead of Libor.

Sales have risen following a difficult 2020 as issuers seek to tap higher demand to offload the securities cheaply and cut costs on existing deals through refinancing and so-called reset transactions.

The 2021 deal tally is split between $37 billion in new-issue transactions along with $68 billion in refis/resets, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Don Mullen, founder and chief executive officer of Pretium Partners, says that corporate debt could underperform mortgages this year, with fewer defaults likely for real estate loans and higher recoveries for mortgage-backed instruments.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of March 19-25

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she prefers to have the Financial Stability Oversight Council flag hazardous activities by nonbanks rather than subject specific firms to heightened supervision.

JPMorgan Chase and Loop Capital Markets have submitted pitches suggesting ways to structure $1 billion of bonds that Governor Gavin Newsom proposed to build vehicle charging stations

U.S. companies including Hilton and Avis are so anxious to lock in low borrowing costs now, before inflation fears push yields even higher or close the market altogether, that they’re paying millions of dollars in penalties to refinance debt early.

A PIMCO-sponsored HELOC securitzation, as well as a mortgage-insurance linked transaction, are the latest examples of issuers getting a head start on switching to an expected replacement benchmark for Libor.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of March 12-18

Relying on retained earnings alone, it would be until at least 2036, if not longer, before government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae might end.

The strong showing has prompted managers to bring new deals at favorable terms and refinance and reset existing bonds at cheaper costs, leading market observers to predict a record year for refinancings.

CLO new-issue month-to-date volume is at $8.9 billion, keeping pace with a record $15.8 billion total from February