The Miami Heat’s home playoff games are not going to be the only events drawing attention to sunny Miami next week as IMN hosts its annual REO-to-Rental Forum in Miami. As we have previously discussed numerous times (here, here and here, and OnPoint Updates here and here), the REO-to-Rental asset class has become quite a hot topic and this conference is sure to provide invaluable insight into current trends in the market, as well as where market participants see this class of assets going over the near- and far-term.Continue Reading IMN’s REO-to-Rental Forum 2013: Welcome to Miami

The second annual IMN CLO and Leveraged Loan Conference returned to New York this past week. Building on last year’s momentum (discussed here), over 1,500 managers and investors, in addition to structurers, bankers, lawyers and other industry actors, filled the convention space at the Conrad Hotel, doubling last year’s attendance and causing standing room only conditions in the large downtown venue. Yes, many conference attendees were literally prevented by conference staff from entering the fully packed Conrad ballrooms.Continue Reading Second Annual IMN CLO and Leveraged Loan Conference Update

A recent decision out of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York has brought greater certainty to the interpretation of what qualifies as an “interest” when determining the scope of a Section 363(f) “free and clear” sale in bankruptcy. The decision in In re Tougher Industries, Inc. became the latest in…

Last summer, we at Crunched Credit wrote (here, here and here) about Mortgage Resolution Partner’s (“MRP”), a San Francisco-based venture-capital firm, proposal whereby underwater performing residential mortgage loans held in private label securitization would be seized, refinanced, or restructured and sold to third party investors, with the government recovering the administration costs and MRP earning a fee on each transaction (the “Program”), which (or some version of which) was (and in some cases still is) being considered by, for example, the County of San Bernardino (which has dropped the idea), the City of Chicago (a decision on whether to move forward is still pending), Wayne County, MI (Detroit area) (Wayne County has dropped the idea), and the City of Salinas, CA (which has entered into an agreement with MRP to provide residential foreclosure data but has indicated that this agreement does not mean that they are considering the Program at this time).Continue Reading No Marriage for Mortgage Resolution Partners Yet (But Proposal Still Being Considered)

Terrorism insurance has been boring for the past several years. It risks becoming not boring. In the lee of the terrorism attack of 9/11, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA, was rapidly passed by the Congress and signed by the President. TRIA provided a federal backstop for private terrorism insurance responding to the unwillingness of the private insurance market to provide meaningful terrorism insurance in light of the unpredictability of the risk and, therefore, perceived inability to price the insurance. TRIA was initially passed in November 2002 and reauthorized in 2005 and 2007. It expires on December 31, 2014. An extension is far from certain.Continue Reading Terrorism Insurance Redux

The FDIC’s new rules (promulgated per the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act) for calculating deposit insurance assessments for insured depository institutions, including "large institutions" and "highly complex institutions," are set to become effective on April Fool’s Day, 2013. No kidding. As institutions of this type are active investors in CLOs, particularly the “AAA”-rated tranche of CLOs, there has been significant consternation among market participants on the immediate and long-term effect of such new rules.Continue Reading CLO Update: New FDIC Rules on “Higher Risk Securitizations”

Among the more technical topics we cover in this Blog, we keep an eye on Europe as we fundamentally continue to worry that Europe’s disease could infect our markets. As I write this, Cyprus is trying to sort out the terms of the proposed EU bailout for the banking sector which is eight times the size of the GDP of the whole darn island. The US commodities and stock markets have fluttered in response and may continue to flutter for several days, but now a deal has been announced and the betting is Cyprus will drop out of the headlines and become yesterday’s news. We’ll be back to business with nary a backward glance at Europe; until next time.Continue Reading Cyprus: Not the Archduke Ferdinand Moment, This Time

Last week, we and a few of our colleagues here at Dechert attended CREFC’s 2013 Distressed Debt Summit. Echoing the mood at January’s CREFC conference, the mood at the NY Athletic Club last week was upbeat about the CMBS market as a whole but the general sentiment, with respect to the distressed debt market, is that good deals (in other words, deals worth making) are harder and harder to come by.Continue Reading Reflections on the 2013 CREFC Distressed Debt Summit

The warm weather is not the only thing descending on New York City this week as CREFC hosts its annual Distressed Debt Summit at the New York Athletic Club overlooking Central Park. March in New York City is famous for the Big East Tournament (speaking of distressed…), St. Patrick’s Day parades and love blooming along with the flowers. But it won’t be all buzzer beaters, green beer, horse carriage rides and proposals in the park as industry leaders look to discuss the market trends and opportunities in the distressed debt market for 2013.Continue Reading Distressed Debt Conference in Bloom in NYC