Credit - 2006-09-01
Articles in this issue
Regulatory shake-up for rating agencies
Legislation being debated in Congress would tighten up oversight of rating agencies and broaden the criteria for joining the elite NRSRO-approved club of leading agencies
Legal Spotlight
US Congress is considering new legislation that could enable CDO issuers to sell greater chunks of their CDOs to pension plan investors. Todd Garvelink and Howard Mulligan explain
Winner: Grand plc
In our monthly roundup of innovative deals in the credit markets, we highlight the Grand CMBS transaction, Vneshtorgbank's MBS and Wellcome Trust's inaugural bond issue
Rate hikes force revised outlook for credit
With the US calling a halt to interest rate tightening but other central banks continuing to raise rates, market participants have had to reassess their views on credit
Overcoming the barriers to a CDS futures market
The long-awaited CDS futures contract from Eurex has suffered repeated setbacks. Initially planned for launch last year, it is yet to make an appearance. Sell-side inertia, documentation disputes and a booming OTC market are some of the obstacles it…
Argentina and Venezuela issue joint bond
The two South American nations announce plans for a mould-breaking bilateral deal whereby each sovereign guarantees the debt of the other
Are we nearly there yet?
Amy Falls wonders when credit spreads will widen enough for investors to feel that credit risk is being priced appropriately
Back to Basics
We take you back to the credit basics to review everything you thought you already knew but were too afraid to ask ... Dominic Pegler, head of fixed-income strategy for Europe at Barclays Global Investors in London, explains how a bond is priced
James Vinci
As hedge funds have grown, so too has prime brokerage. Market leader Morgan Stanley's prime brokerage MD James Vinci explains the challenges of this business to Saskia Scholtes
The outlook for Ford
Talking point
Investment grade
Secondary market liquidity
Leveraged loan CDS
Looking beyond the hype
Swiss restructuring
As regulatory pressure on insurance companies to improve their solvency requirements increases, one reinsurer's reaction stands out from the crowd. Hardeep Dhillon looks at how Swiss Re is using innovative structures in the debt capital markets to…
Thomas Huertas
The director of the wholesale firms division and banking sector leader at the Financial Services Authority in London outlines the progress made in resolving the operational problems in credit derivatives processing. Interview by Nikki Marmery
High yield
Secondary market liquidity
Creditex and CreditTrade merge
Banks welcome the complementary merger of credit derivatives brokers, which brings together Creditex's electronic expertise and CreditTrade's dominance in voice broking
Convertibles are back in fashion ... but how can they avoid the pitfalls of the past?
Convertible bonds are back on investors' radars after an overvalued market imploded early last year. But how sustainable is the recovery - and how can it avoid repeating the pattern of the last bloodbath? Jean-Paul Carbonnier investigates
Cash-CDS basis
Market graphic
Credit derivatives: the next generation
Now that credit default swaps and other credit derivatives are moving into the mainstream of financial trading, a new range of products and structures are being developed using synthetic techniques. Calyon's Loic Fery and Ally Chow review some of these…
Paying a premium for bank analysts
Bank analysts are paid more than other credit analysts; but are they really worth it? Toby Nangle did the number-crunching to find out
L Sankar, Jure Skarabot
Citigroup credit derivatives specialists explain why the Gaussian copula model, despite its flaws, is still the market standard for analysing correlation
