I have been mulling our 2014 Outlook for some time and decided to wait until after the New Year and CREFC to write.  Just in case we got the whole Mayan calendar end of the world story wrong by a year (hey, it was 5000 years old) which would make the whole prediction thing a bit irrelevant, I elected to wait and possibly save me some work.  But we’re still here and settling into 2014.  It’s time. 
Continue Reading 2014 OUTLOOK

The new Risk Retention Rule published jointly by the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Securities Exchange Commission, with a little help from the Federal Housing Finance Agency and HUD slouched into the light of day on August 28, in the lee of the holiday weekend. Reportedly, it’s been locked and loaded for months as the regulatory panjandrums wrestled over the politics of the Qualified Mortgage. Really? The day before the long weekend? Isn’t that a tell that it is less than entirely estimable? Didn’t Nixon resign on a Friday? It’s like maybe no one would notice the delivery of a long-anticipated 550 page opus which has, in its gift, the continued vitality of structured finance at large?Continue Reading Risk Retention Re-proposal: The Good, Bad, Ugly And Unintended

This week, over a thousand industry participants made their way through a rain soaked Manhattan for the start of CREFC’s Annual Conference. The low hum of attendees taking conference calls in corners and tapping messages on iphones provided a constant auditory backdrop to the event and aptly conveyed the velocity of the CMBS industry in 2013. The market is back to work.Continue Reading Stormy Skies Greet Sunny Outlook at CREFC 2013

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

Dechert’s securitization team is looking forward to the American Securitization Forum 2013 (“ASF 2013”) conference starting this Sunday, as it is expected to be once again the largest capital markets conference in the world. ASF 2013 is expecting over 4,500 participants who will all convene at the Aria Hotel and Convention Center in fabulous Las Vegas.Continue Reading ASF 2013 (“Viva Las Vegas”)

After a night of fun at Dechert’s party at the SLS Hotel, many of us needed a pick-me-up on Tuesday morning. Those of us that dragged ourselves out of bed and into the roundtable discussion on market issues and opportunities were not disappointed. The quick hitting discussion by over two dozen industry insiders, including Crunched Credit’s own Rick Jones, provided no lack of entertainment or insight into the current state of the industry.Continue Reading CREFC Day 2: Riding the Wave

South Beach will welcome over 1200 lenders, borrowers, servicers, lawyers and other service providers to the January 2013 CREFC Conference for another party in the city where the heat is on. The conference kicks off on Monday with a series of forums for agency investors, high yield debt investors, issuers, portfolio lenders, servicers, B-Piece buyers and IG bondholders. The featured speaker Monday afternoon will be David Malpass, the president of Encima Global, an economic research and consulting firm serving institutional investors and corporate clients.Continue Reading January Conference 2013: CREFC’s Going to Miami

As Philadelphians, it’s easy to think that 2012 has been a disappointment.  Our beloved Eagles are 4-9, the Phillies had the most disappointing season in recent history and the Sixers traded last year’s best player for someone who has not yet set foot on the court this season (to avoid any rage from hockey fans, we will omit any discussion of the state of the Flyers).Continue Reading Optimism Abounds at the CREFC After-Work Seminar: “Lender Perspective: Current State of the Debt Markets & Trends for 2013”

Next week, hundreds of industry participants will make their way to our Nation’s capital for CREFC’s Annual Conference.   

The Conference promises to provide a forum to explore the effect of increasing financial instability in the Eurozone as well as the opportunity to develop important industry initiatives.  CREFC’s PSA Task Force will kick things off