Polish bank receives upgrade after its sale by AIB
Moody's yesterday upgraded Polish bank Bank Zachodni WBK (BZ WBK) to Baa1 from Baa2 following its aqusition from Allied Irish Bank by Banco Santander. The acquisition was completed on 1 April. Currently Santander holds 95.67% of the bank's share capital with the same percentage of votes.

Credit Suisse's CLO could price next week, according to Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Asset Management are close to pricing a new $410 million CLO with Bank of America, reports Bloomberg

SEC gives CDO of ABS officials civil action notice, says Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that the SEC has notified two prominent figures from the CDO of ABS business that it plans to bring civil enforcement proceedings against them

Moody's default rate declines again
The Moody's Monthly Default Report for March shows that the global default figure at the end of the first quarter fell once again, settling at 2.6%, down from 3.2% at the end of 2010.

Santander closes European balance sheet CLO, says Moody's
Olimpo CLO 2010-1, a European balance sheet deal with par value of €5.71 billion, closed earlier this week, according to Moody’s

Automotive firm sits more comfortably with S&P upgrade
Standard & Poor's yesterday upgraded automotive parts manufacturer Lear Corporation to BB from BB- as recovering demand in the light vehicle market in north America and Europe, as well as strong growth in emerging markets, has seen the firm's revenues and profits improve significantly over the past twelve months.

Bullet shortage: BofA Merrill highlights shortening HY duration
The increasing use of call options in high yield bonds has driven the average duration of the US high yield market to an all-time low of less than four years

S&P highlights strong US CLO performance
A report by S&P has highlighted the strong credit performance of US CLOs so far this year which has led to stream of upgrades in the US CLO sector

German support not enough to stop downgrade for Greek telco
Moody's has today downgraded the rating of Greek telecoms firm Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (known as OTE) from Baa2 to Baa3, triggered by the recent downgrade of Greece from Ba1 to B1.

Lloyds hits the market with rare project finance CLO
Lloyds Banking Group is marketing a balance sheet CLO, which looks likely to go down as the first European CLO to be issued this year, and one of the first ever backed by project finance loans

Moody's default rate plateaus at much reduced level
Moody's twelve-month trailing golbal speculative grade default index plateaued at 2.8% in February, unchanged from January, but significantly lower than the 11.7% rate recorded in February 2010.  

Moody's upgrades US gaming firm
Moody's yesterday upgraded US casino operator Caesars Entertainment from Caa3 to Caa2, with around $12 billion in debt affected by the upgrade.

Moody's annual study shows massive defaults decline
Moody's annual default study, which updates default figures for 2010 and includes data stretching back to 1920, shows that there was a massive decline in the default rate of Moody's rated corporate issuer defaults last year.

S&P downgrades automotive firm on demerger completion
Standard & Poors yesterday downgraded Italian automotive maker Fiat from BB+ to BB as the firm completed the demerger of its nonautomotive subsidiaries CNH and Iveco.

Banks' tier-one calling convention set to change, says IlliquidX
In research published today, independent financial services boutique IlliquidX says that weakness in bank capitalisation means that the traditional certainty around tier-one paper being called is set to change