Standard & Poor’s
Strategic thinking
Banks and index providers have been quick to colonise the investment space vacated by stressed hedge funds after transparency became a byword for popularity. With both now offering proprietary dynamic strategies and promising alpha returns, will they end…
Point Carbon and S&P to offer credit ratings for carbon trading
Carbon market analysis group Point Carbon and ratings agency Standard & Poors are looking at setting up a joint venture to investigate carbon offset project risk assessment products and services.
Profiting from CDOs
Investors that snapped up cash bonds and other simple credit assets at the start of last year have made large profits as the credit market rallied strongly in 2009. While many of the obvious credit opportunities have disappeared, some market participants…
A Firms hand
Lou Eccleston, executive managing director of Fixed Income Risk Management Services, talks to Alexander Campbell
NAIC decision to stop using rating agencies for RMBS heralds major change for US insurance industry
Concern by the NAIC over the veracity of rating agencies’ analysis of insurers’ RMBS holdings is leading to a shake-up in how these organisations are used in the US. Is this pattern set to be followed in Europe?
Risking the first 10%
Gilliat Financial Solutions is offering a six-year income product linked to the FTSE 100 that promises a fixed coupon as well as bonus payments, but only if investors are prepared to put 10% of their capital at risk
India finds some forward momentum
The global financial crisis could easily have sounded the death knell for India’s nascent structured products market. But as the country’s equity markets have resumed their upward trend, dealers say equity-linked structures are catching on fast.
Continued high default rate in 2010 predicted by S&P
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) expects between 55 and 75 West European companies with speculative-grade credit ratings to default in 2010, continuing an above-average default rate.
