Tranche trading is back: relative value plays power growth
Synthetic bespoke and index tranche markets are shifting through the gears and accelerating, say investors, as an increasing prevalence of relative value trading strategies evoke dreams of the products returning to pre-financial crisis glory.

Credit traders' kickstand: synthetic credit leads the way as spreads swoop on dovish wings
Dovish comments by the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve, along with thin bond issuance, contributed to a pronounced rally this week in credit market. But a nervy week may lie ahead as suspense grows before G20 summit talks between the US and China next Friday and Saturday

New Look triggers credit event with big pay-out likely for CDS
The Europe, Middle East & Africa Determinations Committee has ruled that New Look has triggered a failure-to-pay credit event

DC accepts New Look failure-to-pay credit event question
The Europe, Middle East and Africa Determinations Committee has accepted a request to rule on whether New Look has triggered a failure-to-pay credit event

Index tranche levels spike as investors advance into equity
Trading of credit index tranches is picking up, with some $61 billion worth changing hands in the space during the first quarter, according to data from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation

Oak Hill reshuffles leadership in Europe
Oak Hill Advisors has appointed three long-serving members of its investment and business development teams to lead the European office

Bespoke gains pull CLO buyers as market tipped to hit $100bn
Synthetic bespoke issuance could catch up with the more visible CLO market this year, say structured credit specialists

New Look bankruptcy credit event question put before Determinations Committee
The Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee for the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region has been asked to rule on whether New Look, the UK based clothes retailer, has triggered a bankruptcy credit event

New manager Resco lands ex-credit head to found advisory board
Resco Asset Management, a London based asset manager set up last year, has appointed the first of an anticipated three advisory board members

Triple B fightback has begun, says BNP Paribas
Fallen angel risk – the possibility that a wave of triple B credits could be cut by rating agencies to sub-investment grade – should begin to decline, according to strategists at BNP Paribas

Steinhoff has triggered failure-to-pay credit event, rules DC
Steinhoff Europe has triggered a failure-to-pay credit event, the EMEA Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has ruled unanimously

Regulation stifles SRTs, but banks and investors revel in quarter-four outperformance
Over the course of 2018 there was roughly €6.5 billion of issuance in the market for significant risk transfer (SRT) deals, sources say, with the last three months understood to be the busiest quarter on record

CDS relative value traders shift their bets as Europe trades inside US
Credit derivative markets have hit a point of position cutting and resetting, with the iTraxx Europe index having dipped inside its US counterpart CDX IG for the first time since December even as the European Central Bank’s new funding programme underwhelmed financials traders

Isda tables plans to rid CDS market of narrowly tailored credit events
After lengthy deliberation, a working group of major firms is today set to publish proposals aimed at ridding the market of ‘narrowly tailored credit events’, whereby borrowers are persuaded to default on debt payments in order to trigger pay-outs for CDS holders

Isda extends German CDS protocol deadline beyond March index roll
The International Swaps & Derivatives Association (Isda) has extended the deadline for market participants to adhere to its German bank CDS protocol after it became clear a number of affected parties would not be signed up in time

Axiom launches credit derivatives fund under recent hire Henrio
Creditflux reported in October that the French asset manager was looking to launch the new credit derivatives strategy

Isda sets 27 February deadline for German bank CDS protocol adherence
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) has launched a protocol for German bank CDS, as the industry looks to adapt to a change in the country’s law regarding senior financial debt

Pacific Gas & Electric triggers bankruptcy credit event
Pacific Gas and Electric Company has triggered a bankruptcy credit event, the Americas Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has ruled, by 14 votes to one

CDS food fight as UNFI sues Goldman Sachs over SuperValu deal
United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) has summoned Goldman Sachs to court, accusing the bank of bad faith in the way it handled the US retailer’s buyout of SuperValu last year, a transaction which caused the target firm’s CDS spread to bloat by over 200bp in one day

Isda seeks fallback spread vendor for derivatives
The International Swaps & Derivatives Association is seeking an independent service provider to calculate and publish adjustments to fallbacks it will use in interest rate benchmarks for its Isda definitions

Pacific Gas & Electric credit event posed following Chapter 11 filing
The Americas Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee has been asked to rule on whether Pacific Gas and Electric has triggered a credit event, after the San Francisco headquartered firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in its history

Sears CDS settles well above bonds on physical settlement squeeze
Predictions that credit default swaps referencing Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corp would recover at a high level have been borne out, with an auction to settle the contracts having returned a value of almost 80 cents on the dollar – nearly 30 points higher than where bonds of the bankrupt US retailer have been quoted

Dealers gear up to settle Sears CDS and rule on Ziggo successor
The long wait to settle the final price of Sears Roebuck Acceptance Corp credit default swaps will end today with a credit event auction, while investors could also learn whether there is successor to contracts referencing deregistered Ziggo Bond Finance

Credit spread improvement is calm before the storm, warn strategists
European and US credit markets have begun 2019 with a more buoyant tone than they ended 2018, but strategists warn that bearish factors still outweigh and suggest the overall direction of spreads this year is likely to be wider