Investors and issuers are divided on the usefulness of disclosure requirements for MBS and ABS. While investors said disclosures encourage them to buy securities, issuers cited them as a burden.
Morningstar plans to buy fellow rating agency DBRS for $669 million. Currently, there are 10 nationally recognized statistical rating organizations, and speculation is the space could be ripe for consolidation.
Fitch Ratings called out other rating services for allowing credit enhancement levels that it views as inadequate on ABS from marketplace lenders. Other rating services are seen as getting more comfortable with the sector.
S&P's proposal to loosen rating standards for CLOs was criticized by a former chief credit officer of the rating service. Annual issuance of CLOs increased by 9% in 2018 to $129 billion, with analysts warning of performance issues.
The transition away from the London Inter-bank Offered Rate could prompt significant tax issues for MBS and ABS investors. The Structured Finance Industry Group wrote to the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury last week requesting guidance on the issue. LIBOR won’t be available after 2021 and market participants are looking for an alternative reference rate. Various securities are tied to the London benchmark rate in terms of the loans that back the deals and their ...
Rating services are getting more comfortable with ABS and MBS stocked with loans originated by marketplace lenders. The share of such issuance with credit ratings is increasing and credit enhancement requirements for the deals are declining. Marketplace lenders, also known as fintech lenders, started by matching individual investors with borrowers, and funding evolved in recent years to institutional investors and ABS and MBS. Some $2.6 billion of marketplace lending ABS ...
Production of new MBS and ABS fell in almost every category during the first quarter of 2019, but several markets showed rebounding volume in March, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis shows. Preliminary estimates indicate that a total of $310.04 billion of MBS and ABS was issued in the first three months of 2019, a 10.3% decline from the previous three-month period. It marked the softest quarter in new issuance since the April-June cycle ... [Includes three data charts]
Delinquencies on subprime auto ABS are rising, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But S&P Global Ratings said the situation may not be as bad as the Fed suggests.
The market leaders in rating non-agency MBS and non-mortgage ABS retained their top rankings in 2018. S&P Global was the top rating service in the ABS market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis, after rating $142.24 billion of new issuance, an 11.6% percent increase from 2017. [Includes two data charts.]
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