Category: Market Action

Assiduous Reader BG sent me a link to a NYT article Bank’s Collapse in Europe Points to Global Risks:

Among Dexia’s biggest trading partners are several large United States institutions, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. To limit damage from Dexia’s collapse, the bailout fashioned by the French and Belgian governments may make these banks and other creditors whole — that is, paid in full for potentially tens of billions of euros they are owed. This would enable Dexia’s creditors and trading partners to avoid losses they might otherwise suffer without the taxpayer rescue.

Whether this sets a precedent if Europe needs to bail out other banks will be closely watched.

This highlights my single largest complaint about the Basel I, II, and III rules: interbank loans are risk-weighted according to the credit rating of the sovereign; the only way this makes sense is if the regulators have taken an explicit view that inter-bank bail-outs will happen.

Note that the regulators’ moronic desire to see centralized clearing for derivatives will simply make matters worse.

Interbank loans should be risk-weighted according to the credit quality of the bank – or the collateral posted – not according to the sovereign. And, what’s more, the regulators should stop their pretense at surprise when this is what happens.

Dexia is also suffering losses on about 11 billion euros ($15.3 billion) in credit insurance it has written on mortgage-related securities, the same instruments that felled A.I.G., echoing that insurer’s troubles. In this business, too, Dexia’s problems have been worsened by aggressive demands by some trading partners for additional collateral. According to a person briefed on the transactions, Goldman Sachs, one of Dexia’s biggest trading partners, has asked for collateral equal to nearly twice the decline in market value of its deals. As was the case with A.I.G., Dexia must provide the collateral when the prices of the underlying securities fall, even if they have not defaulted.

Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for Goldman, said “we have no reason to believe that Dexia will not continue to meet its contractual obligations after it is restructured.”

As for the aggressive collateral calls by Goldman, Mr. van Praag said: “Our dealings with Dexia have been perfectly normal. In an environment of widening credit spreads and increased volatility, collateral calls are to be expected.” The suggestion that Goldman has been more aggressive than Dexia’s other trading partners is “quite odd,” he said, adding: “If collateral is owed, we ask for it.”

This looks like AIG: The Sequel for Lucas van Praag, World’s Greatest Corporate Spokesman. First, Goldman was vilified for needing a bail-out when AIG went bust. Then, when they proved to the Congressional Committe that they had no exposure to AIG because they (a) were collaterallized on most of the deals and (b) had purchased CDS protection on their uncollateralized exposure, they were vilified for creating a cash drain at AIG.

As far as I can tell, Goldman is the only financial institution in the world that behaves as if somebody, somewhere, is thinking about what they’re doing.

Assiduous Reader BG points out:

….problem is the contracts called for double in collateral for the amounts that the fixed interest rate borrow cost went offside when interest rates declined so much. So, while Dexia might have successfully hedged its net interest income spread over a 10-year term, the posting of collateral in the short term seems to have destroyed the bank.

Quite right, but it all seems somewhat peculiar. If Dexia is still solvent, but the overcollateralization has made it illiquid, then this is a classic study in central banking: the ECB should give them a loan at a punitive rate. But my question is: why double collateral? That’s a pretty fierce haircut! So my guess – and it’s only a guess, I haven’t been following the Dexia story closely – is that the collateral is no damn good; that the “double collateral” being talked about is computed according to the face value of the collateral, and that when the collateral is marked to market you arrive at a much more sensible figure. Any commentary from readers more familiar with the saga than I am would be appreciated!

Sadly, the Solvency Fairy did not arrive on the weekend:

Spanish and Italian government bonds fell as Europe’s leaders struggled to convince investors they can craft an effective response to the region’s debt crisis.
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“The main disappointment was that there was no agreement on increasing the size” of the European bailout fund, said Alessandro Giansanti, a senior interest-rates strategist at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam. “Spreads will continue to widen ahead of the upcoming supply from Italy.”

Italy’s 10-year yield increased six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 5.95 percent as of 4:56 p.m. in London. The 4.75 percent security due September 2021 lost 0.380, or 3.80 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,387) face amount, to 91.75. Rates on similar-maturity Spanish securities increased seven basis points to 5.55 percent.

… and tempers are fraying:

David Cameron has begun a week of intense political infighting over Europe by becoming embroiled in a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy over Britain’s role in talks to solve the crisis enveloping the euro.

The bust-up between Cameron and Sarkozy held up the conclusion of the EU-27 summit for almost two hours, with the French president expressing rage at the constant criticism and lectures from UK ministers.

Sarkozy bluntly told Cameron: “You have lost a good opportunity to shut up.” He added: “We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings.”

Being whined at by a petulant Frenchman isn’t going to do Cameron any harm:

Mr. Cameron is in the midst of a potentially destructive political meltdown within his Tory party, whose more right-wing backbenchers are adamantly opposed to Britain’s membership in the 27-member European Union.

On Monday, Mr. Cameron is facing a private members’ bill, proposed by one of his Tory backbenchers, that would ask the government to hold a referendum asking citizens if they want Britain to withdraw from Europe.

This, the Prime Minister knows, would be disastrous: A poll this week shows that almost half of Britons would vote positively in such a vote (the EU has never been popular in Britain).

Assiduous Reader BG also sends me a link to The Little State With a Big Mess:

After decades of drift, denial and inaction, Rhode Island’s $14.8 billion pension system is in crisis. Ten cents of every state tax dollar now goes to retired public workers. Before long, Ms. Raimondo has been cautioning in whistle-stops here and across the state, that figure will climb perilously toward 20 cents. But the scary thing is that no one really knows. The Providence Journal recently tried to count all the municipal pension plans outside the state system and stopped at 155, conceding that it might have missed some. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions, including the big one: Are these numbers for real?
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Analysts also took a close look at the projected long-term investment return for the pension system: 8.25 percent. Everything rested on hitting that target, but the state’s actuary said there was less than a 30 percent chance that would happen over the next 20 years. The board voted to lower the assumption to 7.5 percent. (Given the recent run in the financial markets, even that figure may seem optimistic.)

As a result of that change, the state’s pension shortfall instantly rose to $9 billion from $7 billion. The unions said Ms. Raimondo had manufactured a crisis.
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Then, as if on cue, Central Falls declared bankruptcy. The city’s pension fund wasn’t just underfunded. It was completely out of money. A receiver for the city sought court permission to reduce by as much as half the base pensions of retired police officers and firefighters.

Suddenly the pension crisis wasn’t an abstraction any more. The unthinkable had happened, and the odds were that it would happen again unless the state acted quickly.

Feeling smug? Don’t. Here in Toronto, we like to pretend that a garbageman can lead a nice middle class existence ($22 / hour + pension + benefits, which is not much less than a Registered Nurse gets).

The US Treasury is contemplating floating-rate or reset bonds:

The U.S., seeking to attract investors who might otherwise avoid Treasuries amid a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, is considering the sale of floating- rate notes in what would be its first new security since it began offering inflation-linked debt 14 years ago.

The Treasury Department said this month it asked Wall Street’s biggest bond dealers for recommendations on structuring securities with coupons that rise or fall with benchmark rates. Officials are scheduled to gather with the 22 primary dealers, who include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., on Oct. 28 as it decides whether to go further during their regular meeting that precedes each quarterly refunding.

PWF was confirmed at Pfd-1(low) by DBRS:

DBRS has today confirmed the ratings on the Senior Debt and Preferred Shares of Power Financial Corporation (PWF or the Company) at AA (low) and Pfd-1 (low), respectively. The rating trends remain Stable.
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Given an uncertain economic environment that could limit organic growth, DBRS expects that PWF will take advantage of its strong financial position to pursue small tactical acquisitions in the financial services arena. Pressures on regulatory capital adequacy could conceivably encourage a number of financial institutions to sell certain business lines at opportunistic prices, which would complement and leverage those of the Company. Achieving additional scale in Putnam through the acquisition of incremental AUM with a shared distribution channel, for example, would bring its financial results closer in line with the Company’s original targets for Putnam, while supporting broader growth initiatives. That PWF retains the ability to consider such value-added acquisitions in the current environment is a testament to its conservative financial profile and its long-term perspective.
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With a 16.9% total unconsolidated debt ratio at the end of June 2011, the Company’s capitalization remains conservative, with only modest double leverage, exercised through the use of perpetual preferred shares. If such shares are treated as permanent equity, double leverage is close to non-existent. Debt service coverage ratios are strong at over 15 times on an earnings basis and just under 8.5 times on a cash flow basis. Liquidity is also not a source of concern, with close to $525 million in cash and short-term securities at the holding company pro forma the November 1, 2011, dividend payment of close to $250 million and additional stores of liquidity at both GWO and IGM. Such retention of liquid assets in the current uncertain economic environment reflects a unified and consistent approach to risk management across the organization. Financial flexibility is additionally enhanced by the proven access by the Company and its investee companies to capital-market funding should the Company require funding for an opportunistic acquisition.

If they want to make opportunistic acquisitions, they may find themselves bidding against the banks:

Phones are ringing steadily in the offices of Canada’s big banks as capital-starved European lenders seek buyers for assets.
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For companies like Royal Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which want to get bigger in the asset management business, there are plenty of tasty morsels on offer.
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And there’s a belief in some of Bay Street’s bank towers that better deals will come to those who wait – that European banks have not cut their prices as much as they will be forced to do, by the time the euro zone mess is cleaned up.

Barrie McKenna has a good piece on milkfare in today’s Globe, All farmers are equal – but some are more equal than others.

It was a day of contrasts in the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts losing 3bp, FixedResets gaining 11bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 27bp. Volatility was good and skewed to the upside. Volume was heavy.

The FRB-Boston has released Public Policy Discussion Paper that will be of interest to the “Occupy” mob – Quantifying the Role of Federal and State Taxes in Mitigating Income Inequality:

Income inequality has risen dramatically in the United States since at least 1980. This paper quantifies the role that the tax policies of the federal and state governments have played in mitigating this income inequality. The analysis, which isolates the contribution of federal taxes and state taxes separately, employs two approaches. First, cross-sectional estimates compare before-tax and after-tax inequality across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Second, inequality estimates across time are calculated to assess the evolution of the effects of tax policies. The results from the first approach indicate that the tax code reduces income inequality substantially in all states, with most of the compression of the income distribution attributable to federal taxes. Nevertheless, there is substantial cross-state variation in the extent to which state tax policies compress the income distribution attributable to federal taxes. Cross-state differences in gasoline taxes have a surprisingly large impact on income compression, as do sales tax exemptions for food and clothing. The results of the second approach indicate that there has been little change since the early 1980s in the impact of tax policy on income inequality across almost all states.

Here’s a big surprise! Even bigger writedowns on Greek debt are being discussed:

European finance ministers grappled with an assessment that Greece’s economy is deteriorating as they began a six-day battle to stave off a default and shield banks from the fallout.

A review by European and International Monetary Fund experts showed Greek bond writedowns of 60 percent and more official aid would still leave the country with a debt load bigger than its annual economic output by 2020.
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Europe’s international image is “disastrous,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters before the Brussels meeting. “We’re not really giving a great example of a high standing of state governance.”

It will be remembered that Jean-Claude Juncker is a liar with lying staff.

Yellen is talking about QE3:

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said a third round of large-scale securities purchases might become warranted if necessary to boost a U.S. economy challenged by unemployment and financial turmoil.

The central bank should also give “careful consideration” to Chicago Fed President Charles Evans’s proposal to tie the near-zero interest-rate pledge to specific levels of unemployment and inflation, Yellen said today in a speech in Denver.

The remarks signal Fed officials may be prepared to delve further into unprecedented monetary territory and take criticism inside and outside the central bank for expanding the balance sheet. Fed policy makers are struggling to lower unemployment that’s been stuck near 9 percent or higher for 30 months without boosting inflation that’s already close to the central bank’s long-run goal.

See? The Republicans may be on to something

Interesting competition for retail deposits in Europe:

The rate paid on new bank deposits for up to a year has climbed in Portugal to 4 percent from 2.56 percent in December and in Italy to 2.41 percent from 1.40 percent, according to data from the European Central Bank. Banco Espirito Santo SA (BES), Portugal’s biggest publicly traded bank, is offering a 4.83 percent average annual return on three-year deposits of more than 1,000 euros.

In September, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP), Italy’s second-largest bank, sold two-year bonds yielding 4.5 percent to customers transferring cash from competitors.

In Spain, the government acted in May to penalize banks that offered what it deemed to be overly aggressive deposit rates by requiring them to make extra contributions to deposit guarantee funds. Average rates for new bank deposits have held steady this year in Spain at about 2.6 percent.

That hasn’t stopped banks from competing to lure savings with products such as the commercial paper that Bankia is selling to retail clients to raise 1 billion euros. Governments, both national and regional, are in on the act after states including Catalonia and Andalusia offered bonds for sale.
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Banco Espirito said in August that it trimmed lending by 3.1 percent from a year earlier and boosted customer funds by 23 percent to bring its loan-to-deposit ratio down to 155 percent from 198 percent a year earlier. A lower loan-to-deposit ratio is a sign the bank is less reliant on sources of funding such as bond sales to fund its business.

Santander expects lending at its Spanish branch network to shrink 3 percent a year through 2013 after it brought down the loan-to-deposit ratio at the unit to 134 percent from 159 percent in 2009.

Capital Power Corporation, proud issuer of CPX.PR.A has been confirmed at Pfd-3 by DBRS:

DBRS has historically assessed CPLP’s financial profile on a stand-alone basis and, as such, deconsolidated the results of its 29.2% ownership interest in Capital Power Income LP (CPILP; rated BBB (high), Under Review with Negative Implications). The strategic review process initiated by CPILP in the fall of 2010 resulted in an agreement (the Agreement) in which Atlantic Power Corporation (ATP) will acquire all the outstanding units of CPILP. Upon closing of the transaction in early November 2011, CPLP is expected to receive total consideration of approximately $320 million for its ownership interest in CPILP, in a mix of cash, ATP shares and assets. As part of the Agreement, CPILP will sell its Roxboro and Southport facilities, located in North Carolina, to CPLP for a purchase price of $121 million (forming a portion of combined consideration received).

The PPAs for CPILP’s North Carolina plants were finalized with Progress Energy Resources Corp. in June 2011 and DBRS expects their contribution to CPLP’s earnings to be modest, although they should also reduce uncertainty. Closing of the transaction is not expected to have any impact on the ratings of CPLP or CPC, given the modest cash contribution of CPILP to CPLP, and the consideration to be received.

It was a fairly uneventful day on the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts down 3bp, FixedResets up 1bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 4bp. There was a surprising amount of volatility for such a quiet day overall, with the majority of major changes in bid price being downwards. Volume was good.

The heroes of the SEC were able to extort $280-million from Citigroup:

The SEC alleges that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO called Class V Funding III and exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of the assets included in the CDO portfolio. Citigroup then took a proprietary short position against those mortgage-related assets from which it would profit if the assets declined in value. Citigroup did not disclose to investors its role in the asset selection process or that it took a short position against the assets it helped select.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has released a Progress report on Basel III implementation. With respect to Basel III implementation, Canada reports:

Draft regulation expected in May 2012 and final guidance before the end of 2012 for implementation in Q1 2013. OSFI has issued a number of public communications concerning the implementation of Basel III.

Europe remains mired in wrangling:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has canceled a planned speech to parliament in Berlin tomorrow because of a deadlock over proposals to leverage the European Financial Stability Facility to give it more firepower, three German lawmakers said.

“It’s a disappointing development but without any concrete proposal for increasing the efficiency of the fund the chancellor can’t present a complete set of proposals tomorrow,” Norbert Barthle the ranking member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party on parliament’s budget committee, told reporters. Other lawmakers confirming cancelation of Merkel’s speech were opposition members Carsten Schneider and Priska Hinz.

“The French want more money from Germany than we are prepared to shoulder,” Otto Fricke, the budget spokesman for Merkel’s Free Democratic Party ally in parliament, told reporters today.

What’s on the table? Enormous credit lines:

Europe’s bailout fund may be authorized to provide credit lines of as much as 10 percent of a country’s economy, a draft document shows.

The enhanced fund, called the European Financial Stability Facility, may be able to offer loans to countries “before they face difficulties raising funds,” the draft guidelines obtained by Bloomberg News show. Credit lines for Spain and Italy, which required European Central Bank support, could reach 270 billion euros ($371 billion).

The guidelines prompted criticism from some German lawmakers who have opposed bailout aid as France and Germany wrangled over the role of the ECB in tackling Europe’s debt crisis. Finance ministers gather in Brussels tomorrow to set a common strategy, with leaders scheduled to meet Oct. 23.
…
France favors creating a bank out of the EFSF, boosting its financial clout with backing from the ECB, a proposal that Germany rejects, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin this week. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said today that the euro region should agree to use leverage to make the region’s financial support fund “massive.”

Monetizing the debt through the ECB would certainly be the easiest solution. Too bad it would also be the worst.

There’s a little bit more detail regarding Kweku Adoboli / UBS, but not much:

Prosecutors amended two of the four charges against Adoboli to indicate that records he allegedly falsified were on ETF trades. A London magistrates court today transferred the case against the 31-year-old to a criminal court where he will be expected to enter a plea on the accusations at a Nov. 22 hearing.
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UBS questioned one of Adoboli’s trades in August this year, and he “provided a good and plausible explanation,” Williams said. The bank then asked him on Sept. 13 about further trades he’d made that could expose the bank to large losses, and whether he’d told the credit-risk department. He said he hadn’t.

The following day, UBS asked him to confirm “the exact identities of the counterparties” on the trades and he didn’t respond, Williams said at the hearing today. Adoboli left the office at lunchtime and went to his apartment in east London, where he e-mailed the bank about the positions.

“The bank was anxious to have him explain,” and he returned at 3:45 p.m. and cooperated with UBS managers, the prosecutor said. The bank called the police late that night and Adoboli was taken to Bishopsgate precinct, the closest one to UBS’s London headquarters. He was cautioned about his rights and interviewed and “made no admissions,” Williams said.
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In addition to the departure of Gruebel and the co-heads of global equities, Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara, the bank has suspended “a number of front office staff” pending further disciplinary action, Carsten Kengeter, head of the investment bank, said in a memo to staff.

Sounds like just another case of shitty management at an investment bank keeping sloppy records. Yawn.

I hadn’t realized this before but OMERS is in the mutual fund business. Many municipal employees – particularly the 75% (?) of the populace whose objective is to think about financial planning as little as possible – would be well advised to participate.

DBRS confirmed PFR.UN at STA-2:

The main constraints to the rating are the interest rate risk of the Portfolio and the potential for capital losses and reductions in income resulting from underlying securities being called for redemption by their respective issuers.

Seems to me to be a virtual certainty that one or the other of those risks will be realized.

DBRS confirmed NA at Pfd-2:

While strong market shares in the home province remain a key strength of the Bank, the rating reflects the Bank’s regional concentration in Québec, which accounted for 68% of its revenues in 2010, up from an average of 64% over the previous four years. National’s revenue is diversified by business line: the Bank generated 48% of earnings for the first three quarters of 2011 (excluding the Other segment) from the personal and commercial banking unit, 39% of earnings from the financial markets business and 13% from its wealth management operations.

Dan Hallett writes an entertaining piece in the Globe titled BMO income fund sets yield bar unreachably high:

In his recent article, Mr. Heinzl points out that the fund’s hefty monthly cash payout – now equal to more than 9.5 per cent annualized net of fees – has been well above the fund’s longer-term returns.
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Earlier this year, I tested the BMO Monthly Income’s distribution for sustainability. I found that since the managers would have to generate more than 17 per cent annually from its stock picks that the distribution would either need to be cut or risk further eating into the fund’s principal.
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BMO insists the payout is sustainable, an assertion they base on the fund’s net inflows.

I love that last paragraph quoted – Madoff was saying the same thing.

When I think of all the agonizing that has gone into my estimates of sustainable income for MAPF, this kind of stuff drives me wild … but BMO can afford to hire more ex-regulators than I can, so I suppose it’s OK.

It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 14bp, FixedResets up 1bp and DeemedRetractibles losing 7bp. Volatility was average, as was volume.

BAM levered up a little more:

Brookfield-family companies are hot commodities in new-issue markets.

After launching a bought deal late on Tuesday, Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP.UN-T25.63-0.22-0.85%) announced on Wednesday that its offering has been upsized to a total of $588-million. About 70 per cent of that comes from public investors, and the remainder comes from parent company Brookfield Asset Management Inc., which bought more shares to keep its 30 per interest in the subsidiary.

I’m not sure I’m too happy about this. More assets means more fees, but more investment means more leverage.

DBRS confirmed L.PR.A at Pfd-3:

DBRS has today confirmed Loblaw Companies Limited’s (Loblaw or the Company) Medium-Term Notes and Debentures ratings at BBB, its Cumulative Redeemable Second Preferred Shares, Series A rating at Pfd-3, and its Commercial Paper rating at R-2 (middle). All trends remain Stable. The ratings reflect Loblaw’s strong market position, large scale and national diversification, balanced by the mature nature of the core business.

The WN.PR.A, WN.PR.C, WN.PR.D & WN.PR.E issues of Weston were confirmed at Pfd-3 by DBRS:

DBRS has today confirmed the ratings of the Notes & Debentures of George Weston Limited (Weston or the Company) at BBB, the Preferred Shares at Pfd-3 and the Commercial Paper at R-2 (high), all with Stable trends. Weston’s business risk profile remains well placed in the BBB rating category based on the Company’s strong brands and above-average operating efficiency. The Stable trend reflects DBRS’s expectation that Weston will continue to achieve growth in EBITDA from further brand development, operational efficiency gains and new investments. Weston has been successful at maintaining its market position while passing on price increases, at least partially offsetting the effects of a rising input cost environment. The significant increase in the Company’s pro forma adjusted EBITDA in 2010 (approximately $280 million versus approximately $225 million in 2009) was primarily the result of improved operational efficiencies as well as acquisitions (e.g., Ace Bakery Ltd. and Keystone Bakery Holdings, LLC). Weston used approximately $300 million of its cash on hand to finance the acquisition of the aforementioned EBITDA generating businesses. In addition, the Company used $1 billion of cash to fund a special dividend to shareholders in January 2011.

The Assistant Croupier went to BMO:

The mystery of what happened to Mark White, who had been one of the top three individuals in command at Canada’s banking and insurance regulator, has been solved.

Bank of Montreal chief financial officer Tom Flynn sent a note to the bank’s employees Wednesday announcing that Mr. White is joining BMO effective Nov. 1 as senior vice-president of capital management and optimization. The rumour since this summer had been that Mr. White was going to BMO (BMO-T58.49-0.32-0.54%) , but all parties involved had remained mum.

After screwing up the preferred share market, now he can work on more general projects, as revolving door regulation continues to be the norm.

At Ivey School of Business, professors lie to students. For their own good, of course.

It was a quiet day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts up 4bp, FixedResets gaining 6bp and DeemedRetractibles winning 7bp. Volatility was dominated by BAM and related issuers.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.42%, equivalent to 7.05% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long Corporates now yield about 5.0%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread is now 205bp, unchanged from the number reported October 12.

Interesting article about the R&D Tax Credits:

Open Text Corp. chairman Tom Jenkins, who spent the past year investigating Canada’s R&D spending, said he was stunned at how little effort is spent figuring out what works, and what doesn’t.

That’s true of all government programmes – particularly securities regulation, I might say. If it sounds good, do it! is the slogan, and if you go back to something after five years and find out it’s done nothing – or made matters worse – in order to change the programme … well, that would look like you made a mistake, so don’t check.

Europe is having some success in gaining the ability to manipulate sovereign debt markets:

The European Union reached a deal as part of a short-selling law that will pave the way for an optional ban on naked credit-default swaps on sovereign debt.

Poland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and lawmakers from the European Parliament, reached the accord at a meeting in Brussels, EU spokeswoman Chantal Hughes said.

Under today’s deal, traders may be prevented from buying CDS on government bonds unless they either own the sovereign debt or other assets whose price moves in tandem with it. Nations will have the right to opt out of the measure if they detect signs that it may affect their borrowing costs.
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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and lawmakers in the European Parliament have called for a ban on naked CDS trades on government debt over concerns the practice fueled the euro zone’s debt crisis. Germany already has restrictions on using swaps to bet on sovereign defaults.

Some European governments have also criticized the use of short selling to bet against bank stocks, arguing that the practice has roiled markets. Volatility that sent European bank stocks to two-year lows led France, Spain, Belgium and Italy in August to impose temporary bans on short selling that remain in force.

I’m not sure that this will have any effect – buying protection naked is simply a convenient way to short bonds. Sovereigns are, as a rule, fairly easy to borrow and therefore also fairly easy to short. Forward and Futures contracts are also generally available.

Moody’s cut Spain two notches:

Spain’s credit rating was cut for the third time since June 2010 by Moody’s Investors Service as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis threatens to engulf the nation.

Moody’s reduced its ranking to its fifth-highest investment grade, cutting it by two levels to A1 from Aa2, with the outlook remaining negative, the rating company said in a statement today. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain on Oct. 14 to its fourth-highest investment grade after Fitch Ratings cut it to the same level on Oct. 7, the day it also downgraded Italy.

Spain continues to be vulnerable to market stress and event risk while already moderate growth prospects for the nation have been scaled back further, Moody’s said in the statement.

Tomorrow’s report will be greatly delayed because I’m going to go see Chess again. Yes, I know that when I reviewed it on October 7 I said I didn’t like the production … but six months ago when I heard it was coming to town, I decided that if I was going to wait twenty-five years to see a show, I was damn well going to see it twice.

It was a negative day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts losing 18bp, FixedResets down 11bp and DeemedRetractibles off 6bp. Volatility was mild. Volume was heavy.

Say what you like about the Occupy Wall Street crowd, there can be no doubt about their realism and effectiveness:

About 1,000 people gathered in the heart of Toronto’s financial district beginning at 10 a.m. local time to protest inequality and advocate higher taxes for the wealthy. About an hour later, organizers began moving the demonstration to nearby St. James Park.

“To see people take action like this is amazing,” said Neal Hamell, a student from London, Ontario, who traveled to Toronto today to join the protests. “I’d like to see change. If this doesn’t do anything, then something is wrong with the world.”

I understand that on Wednesday they’re going to bring peace to the Middle East, but have not yet decided what to do in the afternoon.

Sparks are flying over the Tobin Tax:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized governments including President Barack Obama’s administration for refusing to make the financial sector pay for the global financial crisis, and vowed to push for a financial transaction tax until it applies at least in Europe.

“It’s not acceptable that especially those outside the euro region, who are time and again pushing us to take broad- based action to manage the debt crisis, are at the same time flatly refusing to impose a financial transactions tax,” Merkel said at a labor union congress in the city of Karlsruhe yesterday. “I think this is not okay. We want, and we have to make, financial market participants contribute to the costs of crisis management.”

SLF is forecasting a big loss for 11Q3:

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) announced preliminary estimates for the third quarter of 2011. The Company expects to report a loss of $621 million for the quarter. On an operating basis, the loss is expected to be $572 million. Results for the third quarter include losses related to substantial declines in both equity markets and interest rate levels, which particularly impacted the individual life and variable annuity businesses in SLF U.S. The third quarter was a period of exceptional market volatility. North American equity markets dropped by 12% – 14%, while yields on fixed income securities fell amid economic uncertainty in the European Union and U.S. monetary policy actions aimed at lowering interest rates on long-term treasuries. In the U.S., treasury rates reached historic lows, with 30-year yields down 146 basis points to 2.91%. Under the Canadian insurance accounting model, the future impact of September 30, 2011, market conditions is reflected in our current period results.

Losses from equity market and interest rate movements were at the high end of the ranges previously disclosed in the Company’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the second quarter of 2011. Key drivers which resulted in market impacts at the high end of the estimated ranges included uneven movements across the yield curve and the impact of large, simultaneous movements in both interest rates and equity markets. Updates to the Company’s actuarial methods and assumptions, which generally take place in the third quarter of each year, contributed approximately $200 million to the loss. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada remains well capitalized, with a Minimum Continuing Capital and Surplus Requirements (MCCSR) ratio that is estimated to be approximately 210% as at September 30, 2011.

The Company currently expenses hedging costs for variable annuities and segregated funds in the period in which they are incurred. In the fourth quarter of 2011, the Company plans to make a method and assumption change related to the valuation of its variable annuity and segregated fund liabilities whereby it will provide for the estimated future lifetime hedging costs of these contracts in its liabilities. This change is expected to result in a higher level of future earnings from in-force contracts than would be the case using the current methodology. The impact of this change on the net income of the Company in the fourth quarter will depend on interest rates and other market conditions as at December 31, 2011, as well as further refinements to the valuation methodology. If this change was made under current market conditions the expected one-time reduction in fourth quarter net income is estimated to be approximately $500 million. The impact of this change on the MCCSR ratio of Sun Life Assurance is expected to be positive, as the increase in variable annuity and segregated fund liabilities will reduce the amount of regulatory required capital for these products.

How ’bout those Germans, eh? Refusing to write Europe a blank cheque!

.Germany said European Union leaders won’t provide the complete fix to the euro-area debt crisis that global policy makers are pushing for at an Oct. 23 summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that “dreams that are taking hold again now that with this package everything will be solved and everything will be over on Monday won’t be able to be fulfilled,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s chief spokesman, said at a briefing in Berlin today. The search for an end to the crisis “surely extends well into next year.”

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers concluded weekend talks in Paris endorsing parts of Europe’s emerging plan to avoid a Greek default, bolster banks and curb contagion. Providing a week to act, they set the Oct. 23 meeting of European leaders in Brussels as the deadline.

Lapdog Carney’s getting a lot of press, shilling for his political master.

Fortis Alberta issued 30-year paper at 4.54%.

It was a mixed day in the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 23bp, FixedResets up 2bp and DeemedRetractibles losing 13bp. Insurers figured prominently on the wrong side of the performance table, presumably due to Sun Life’s announcement. Volume was above average.

DBRS has released its 11Q3 Review of the SplitShares Market.

The Europeans may be facing reality:

European officials are considering writedowns of as much as 50 percent on Greek bonds, a backstop for banks and continued central bank bond purchases as key planks in a revamped strategy to combat the debt crisis, people familiar with the discussions said.

The Greek bond losses may be accompanied by a pledge to rule out debt restructurings in other countries that received bailouts, such as Portugal, to persuade investors that Europe has mastered the crisis, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations will run for another week.

And you see that? They’ll pledge that this will be absolutely the last time! We’re saved!

However, they have take decisive steps to prove they’re the same old clowns:

The European Union may impose position limits for commodities derivatives and curbs on high- frequency trading as part of plans to overhaul the region’s financial-market rules.

The European Commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, is seeking limits on the number of commodity derivative contracts “any given market members or participants can enter into over a specified period of time, or alternative arrangements” with the same impact, according to copies of proposals set for release on Oct. 20 that were obtained by Bloomberg News.
…
Algorithmic and high-frequency trading can give rise to risks such as systems “overreacting” to market events and causing “volatility” according to the draft EU measures. These types of trading can also lend themselves to “certain forms of abusive behavior if misused.”

Planned measures include requiring high-frequency trading firms to prove that they have sufficient risk controls in place and to ensure that clients with direct access to the markets are “properly qualified.”

“Detailed organizational requirements regarding these new forms of trading” will be set out in subsequent EU laws, according to the documents. The EU also plans to list specific examples of trading strategies that should be banned and punished by regulators as market manipulation.

On market abuse, the EU proposals include ensuring that firms found guilty of illegal practices can be fined up to ten percent of annual sales, and that criminal sanctions can be used against traders.

“requiring high-frequency trading firms to prove that they have sufficient risk controls in place”! Hah! There’s a good little avenue for regulatory extortion right there! That is not a thing susceptible to proof – you show me a system that’s 99.999999% effective, then it’s a trivial matter for me to show you the 99.9999995 percentile. However, the demagoguery will serve to distract attention from the mess the politicians have made of sovereign finances, so who cares?

Now that his boss has provided the script, Lapdog Carney is eager to show his loyalty:

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and other expressions of frustration with the global economic and financial system highlight the need for policy makers to show they are serious about forcing change, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says.

This is all about protests across Canada, intended to raise awareness about what Good People the protesters are. I understand that afterwards they’re going to have a Slut Walk!

It was another strong day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 38bp, FixedResets up 26bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 27bp. Volatility was good. Volume was a touch on the light side.

Back in 2005-07, Wall Street’s biggest problem was they just couldn’t write enough mortgages. Times have changed, and now their biggest problem is they can’t write enough mortgages (emphasis added):

Wall Street firms are in discussions to pool as much as $1.5 billion of property loans they’ve amassed this year after a slowdown left them unable to stockpile enough mortgages to sell as securities.

Citigroup Inc. (C), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Guggenheim Securities LLC, and UBS AG (UBSN) are among lenders in talks to bundle commercial mortgages to be sold as bonds during the fourth quarter, said people familiar with the talks. The firms want to clear their books before year-end and avoid risking drops in value by holding the debt, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans are preliminary.
…
Wall Street has arranged about $25.6 billion in commercial mortgage-backed securities this year, compared with about $11.5 billion in all of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales plummeted to $3.4 billion in 2009 compared with a record $234 billion in 2007, the data show.

Credit Suisse, which hasn’t offered a deal since sales revived in 2009, informed about 50 employees yesterday that their jobs were likely to be eliminated, said two people with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. The bank is keeping the division that trades the debt, the people said. Jack Grone, a spokesman in New York, for Switzerland’s second-largest bank, declined to comment.

You see that emphasis???? They want to avoid possible drops in value????? And so they want to sell it to their clients????? Betting against their clients????? Isn’t that EVIL?????? How dare they even dream of buying something from one party and selling it to another?????? Occupy Wall Street!

Fitch is warning of rating carnage:

UBS AG (UBSN), Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc had long-term issuer default grades cut by Fitch Ratings, which put more than a dozen other lenders on watch negative as part of a global review.

UBS’s long-term issuer default rating and its “support rating floor” were cut to “A” from “A+” on a “view that the one-notch uplift for close affiliation with the Swiss state is no longer warranted,” the ratings firm said in a statement. Lloyds and RBS were lowered two steps to A from AA- as Fitch said the U.K. is less likely to provide future support.

Fitch also placed viability ratings, and in some cases credit grades, on negative watch for seven global banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) because of new regulations and economic developments. It put European banks such as Credit Agricole SA on watch, based on sovereign debt concerns and said it would review Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s mortgage-litigation risks.

Placement of the seven global banks — also including Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Credit Suisse AG, BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, Societe Generale (GLE) SA and Barclays Plc (BARC) — on watch “reflects Fitch’s view that these institutions’ business models are particularly sensitive to the increased challenges the financial markets are facing,” Fitch analysts wrote in a statement. “These challenges result from both economic developments, particularly in the euro area, as well as a myriad of regulatory changes.”

More dissent in the FOMC:

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said the central bank has put its credibility at risk by easing during a year in which inflation rose and unemployment fell.

“The committee’s actions at the last two meetings are inconsistent with a systematic pursuit of its communicated objectives,” Kocherlakota said today in a speech in Sidney, Montana. “It follows that these actions diminish the committee’s credibility and so reduce the effectiveness of future committee actions and communications.”

The speech marked the first time Kocherlakota has spoken about policy since opposing a Federal Open Market Committee decision to sell $400 billion of short-term Treasury securities and replace them with $400 billion of longer-term securities.

S&P downgraded Spain:

Spain had its credit rating cut one level by Standard & Poor’s as rising defaults threaten efforts to stem Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and limit risks for the region’s banks.

The ranking slid to AA-, with a negative outlook, in the third reduction by S&P in three years. The ratings company announced the change in a statement.

“Despite signs of resilience in economic performance during 2011, we see heightened risks to Spain’s growth prospects,” S&P said in the statement. “The financial profile of the Spanish banking system will, in our opinion, weaken further, with the stock of problematic assets rising further.”

It was a good solid day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 22bp, FixedResets gaining 21bp and DeemedRetractibles up 17bp. Volatility was good, with SLF issues prominent on the plus side, contrary to recent experience. Volume was actually above average! RBC had a good day, shutting out the opposition as far as my block reporting goes.

The Kansas City Fed has released the Fall, 2011 edition of TEN Magazine, with an interesting article on farmland prices:

As crop prices pushed toward record highs in 2011, farmland values have followed. After slowing somewhat during the 2007-09 recession, cropland has surged since 2010, with values jumping 20 percent or more compared to a year earlier. In some cases, fertile land that sold for $6,000 an acre in 2009 is now going for $12,000 an acre.

But, this surge in farmland values has raised some concerns about its sustainability. Recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that while farmland values have risen 40 percent since 2004, cash rents
have risen only 17 percent.

and another on the knock-on effects of payday-loan regulation:

However, restricting payday loans could lead to some inadvertent outcomes, says Kelly Edmiston, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who recently researched the effects of payday loan restrictions. His research shows consumers without access to legal payday loans, for the most part, don’t use traditional credit as an alternative.

“This suggests these consumers don’t have access to short-term credit of any type or may end up turning to other options that are more costly than payday loans,” he says, citing over-the-limit credit card purchases, bounced checks, pawn brokers and loan sharks as examples.

My latest sure-fire money-making bumper-sticker idea is: “If payday loans are outlawed – only outlaws will make payday loans.” I’ll make a fortune, I tell you, a fortune!

Herman Cain, a front-runner for the Republican nomination is being criticized for not knowing in 2005 that there was a housing bubble. Was it forseeable? Some say yes. Some say no. What bugs me about the US is that they have so many smart guys doing all kinds of really good research on public policy issues – and none of this makes it into the political arena. Canadian political and regulatory decisions are also a pile of hopeless crap, of course, but since the research performed is also a pile of hopeless crap it doesn’t bother me so much.

It was quite a strong day for the Canadian preferred share market,with PerpetualDiscounts winning 61bp, FixedResets up 23bp and DeemedRetractibles gaining 41bp. With numbers like that, there can be no surprise that the Performance Highlights table is lengthy today – but there was one loser! Volume soared, all the way back up to average levels.

PerpetualDiscounts now yield 5.41%, equivalent to 7.03% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long corporates now yield about 5.0%, so the pre-tax interest equivalent spread (also called the Seniority Spread) is now about 205bp, a sharp plunge from the 240bp reported on October 5, with bond yields up 20bp and interest-equivalent preferred yields down about 15bp.

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Buried treasure!:

If you’re looking for a safe place to put your investments, Chad Venzke has a suggestion: Dig a hole in the ground four feet deep, pack gold and silver in a piece of plastic PVC pipe, seal it, and bury it.

The 30-year-old central Wisconsin resident trusts no one but himself to store and protect his gold and silver—not banks, not investment funds, and certainly not the government. It’s precisely because of this suspicion of institutions that he invests in those metals to begin with. In case of emergency, “you always want to have your precious metals within arms reach,” he says.
…
From mid-2010 to mid-2011, U.S. investors bought up more than 100 tonnes of physical gold coins and bars, up from 15.2 tonnes in 2007, according to the World Gold Council.
…
For those storing gold and silver in or around their home, the most immediate danger isn’t a crisis or a dip in metal prices. It’s theft. The FBI, which tallies the theft of precious metals and jewelry in one category, says $1.6 billion was stolen in 2010, up 51 percent from 2005. Just 4.2 percent of the lost loot was recovered last year.

Metal detectors are a big worry. Basic detectors can find metal on the surface or in the first 12 inches to 14 inches below ground, depending on soil conditions, says Louis Mahnken Jr., a sales representative for Kellyco Metal Detectors in Winter Springs, Fla. That’s why Venzke advises burying it at least four feet deep. There are online debates about the best way to frustrate such thieves, including using scrap metal as decoys or hiding metal by covering it underground with asbestos or mirrors.

Still, this makes more sense to me than some of the other options. I don’t understand some investors, who want gold due to a fear of total collapse of the financial system, then buy an ETF based on futures contracts. There may be a lot of slips between the cup and those lips!

Civil servants working on implementation of the proprietary trading ban have come up with a civil-service solution – concentrate more responsibility at the top than can possibly fit:

Chief executive officers and directors of Wall Street banks would have to personally approve compliance with a ban on proprietary trading under the so-called Volcker rule, according to a draft of the proposal.

Financial regulators would require senior management to establish detailed programs for ensuring their banks are following the new rules, according to the 288-page proposal dated Sept. 30 and labeled “confidential and predecisional.” A copy was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Each bank’s CEO and board would be “responsible for setting an appropriate culture of compliance” and the board would be responsible for ensuring compensation structures are aligned with the rule, according to the draft.
…
The draft, which has a 205-page preamble and an 83-page text, is being written by four federal agencies and is scheduled to be released for comment on Oct. 11 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Coming up next: a requirement that CEOs publicly attest that every single on of their employees is morally pure and kind to small furry animals; any violations found will result in jail time.

There are also concerns that the Volcker Rule will reduce the profitability of fixed-income trading:

Wall Street’s fixed-income desks could suffer a 25 percent decline in revenue under a Volcker rule proposal that may outlaw so-called flow trading, according to brokerage analyst Brad Hintz.

The draft proposal, written by regulators including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., forbids market-makers who trade debt securities for customers from amassing positions “in expectation of future price appreciation,” Hintz, of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote today in a note to investors. “Thus flow trading may be prohibited.” Such a move would cut fixed-income revenue by 25 percent and reduce profit margins by 18 percent, Hintz estimated.
…
Fixed-income traders have become more reliant on reaping revenue from price moves in the market because the profit margins from buying and selling to clients, known as the bid- offer spread, have shrunk in recent decades, Hintz wrote.

“As bid-offer pricing narrowed, the Street increased risk- taking when facilitating client trades, which enabled them to respond quickly and profit from changing demand conditions,” Hintz wrote. “By deploying balance sheet to amass inventory ahead of demand, flow trading allowed the firms to partially offset the deteriorating economics in pure execution.”

Less profitability means less capital will be deployed means thinner, more brittle markets. But nobody cares.

The Federal Reserve released, and is seeking comment on, the proposed rule – all 298 pages of it.

The BoC has released a working paper by Bruno Feunou and Roméo Tedongap titled A Stochastic Volatility Model with Conditional Skewness:

We develop a discrete-time affine stochastic volatility model with time-varying conditional skewness (SVS). Importantly, we disentangle the dynamics of conditional volatility and conditional skewness in a coherent way. Our approach allows current asset returns to be asymmetric conditional on current factors and past information, what we term contemporaneous asymmetry. Conditional skewness is an explicit combination of the conditional leverage effect and contemporaneous asymmetry. We derive analytical formulas for various return moments that are used for generalized method of moments estimation. Applying our approach to S&P500 index daily returns and option data, we show that one- and two-factor SVS models provide a better fit for both the historical and the risk-neutral distribution of returns, compared to existing affine generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models. Our results are not due to an overparameterization of the model: the one-factor SVS models have the same number of parameters as their one-factor GARCH competitors.

Those able to plough through that will also be interested in Christoersen, P., Heston, S., and Jacobs, K., (2009) The Shape and Term Structure of the Index Option Smirk: Why Multifactor Stochastic Volatility Models Work So Well,” Management Science, 55 (12), 1914{1932.

Everybody should buy equities! Merkel and Sarkozy are going to save the world!

The S&P 500 has rebounded about 8 percent from a 13-month low on Oct. 3 amid optimism that European leaders will succeed in taming the debt crisis and as economic data topped estimates. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday they will deliver a plan to recapitalize European banks and address the Greek debt crisis by the Nov. 3 Group of 20 summit.

Here’s a cheerful story on malware in USAF Predator drones:

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

The new Nobel laureates in economics are bearish on Europe:

New York University’s Thomas J. Sargent and Princeton University’s Christopher A. Sims shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work in sorting out cause from effect in the economy and policy.
…
The two economists voiced pessimism about the outlook for the 17-member euro zone at a joint press conference at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Sims called the foundation of the monetary regime “precarious” because of the lack of a unified fiscal authority that can issue bonds and raise taxes. The departure of one or more nations from the union would not resolve that, he added.

“The prospects for the euro are dim” if the region can’t find a way to share its fiscal burden, Sims said.

Sargent likened the situation facing the euro zone to that which the U.S. confronted early in its history, when the 13 states were each running their own economic policies and issuing their own debt. “The difficult thing is the politics,” he said.

Politics are also the trouble now in the U.S. as well, Sims suggested. There’s broad agreement among economists on what strategy the U.S. should follow, he said: adopt a plan to deal with the budget deficit while avoiding fiscal stringency in the short-run and maintaining an accommodative monetary policy.

The FDIC is rebuilding its reserves:

U.S. bank failures through 2015 will drain $19 billion from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fund for covering losses from shutdowns, the agency said in an update of its reserve ratio projections.
…
The fund, pushed into deficit by the wave of failures stemming from the 2008 credit crisis, turned positive as of June 30 after seven consecutive quarters of negative balances.
…
Under current projections, FDIC assessment rates will boost the insurance fund to 1.15 percent of insured deposits in 2018, according to the agency’s statement. The regulator is required by the Dodd-Frank Act to increase the ratio to 1.35 percent by Sept. 30, 2020.

Today’s report shows that the FDIC may have gone farther than it needed to in increasing assessments, according to James Chessen, chief economist for the American Bankers Association.

“The FDIC had set aside $17.7 billion for possible bank failures losses at the start of 2011, twice what the actual losses are likely to be this year,” Chessen said in a statement. “Banks are paying $13.5 billion in yearly premiums to the FDIC, which is far in excess of the yearly costs expected by the FDIC over the next several years.”

Looks pretty good compared to CDIC funding:

The target range for the amount of ex ante funding is currently between 40 and 50 basis points of insured deposits—which translates into a range of between $2,410.0 million to $3,012.5 million based on insured deposits as at April 30, 2010. The reported amount as at March 31, 2011, was $2,213.5 million, representing 37 basis points of insured deposits (March 31, 2010: $1,958.1 million representing 33 basis points of insured deposits at April 30, 2009).

… especially since the size of the Canadian banking system is so much larger relative to GDP than is the case in the States – or most other places. The Ministry of Finance has been drinking too much of its ‘strong regulatory framework’ Kool-Aid and some day – hopefully not in my lifetime, but that’s just pious hope – the lack of disaster preparation is going to bite all of us in the ass.

DBRS has released its Unified Interest Rate Model for U.S. RMBS Transactions, which looks most interesting; unfortunately I have not yet had time to give it the attention it deserves.

FCS.PR.B has been confirmed at Pfd-3(low) by DBRS:

DBRS has today confirmed the rating of Pfd-3 (low) on the 6.25% Preferred Securities (the Preferred Securities) issued by Faircourt Split Trust (The Trust).
…
From October 2010 to August 2011, the performance of the Trust was fairly stable, with downside protection fluctuating between 32% and 40%. The Trust’s net asset value (NAV) experienced downward pressure in September 2011 and the current downside protection available to holders of the Preferred Securities was approximately 27% (as of September 30, 2011). Today’s rating confirmation of the Preferred Securities is based on (1) the downside protection available; (2) testing of NAV floors for targeted and special distributions; and (3) the diversification of the underlying assets included in the Portfolio.

The main constraints to the rating are (1) The Trust’s dependence on the value and dividend policies of the securities in the investment portfolio and (2) the reliance on the manager to generate a high yield on the investment portfolio to meet distributions and other trust expenses without having to liquidate portfolio securities.

The 6.25% Preferred Securities are scheduled to mature on December 31, 2014.

It was a strong day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts winning 24bp, FixedResets gaining 3bp and DeemedRetractibles up 10bp. Volatility was good, mostly towards the upside. Volume was pathetic. Doesn’t anybody trade anymore?