BTL RMBS planned
UK Mortgages and TwentyFour Asset Management have acquired a high-quality pool of approximately £350m buy-to-let non-member mortgages originated by The Coventry Building Society Group through its Godiva brand. The portfolio comprises 2,077 recently-originated loans with an average balance of approximately £169,000 and an average LTV of 60.8%. The loans have approximately five years until the current fixed rate period is due to end, thereby helping the subsequent term securitisation to maintain leverage – and therefore the investment return - for longer. TwentyFour is moving forward with the financing phase of the transaction, with The Coventry continuing to service the mortgage holders.

Documentation issues resolved
Laurentian Bank Financial Group says it has successfully resolved issues related to mortgages purchased by an unnamed third-party purchaser and has agreed an action plan with CMHC regarding its securitisation programme, after a 4Q17 audit identified that certain loans were inadvertently portfolio insured while they did not meet CMHC portfolio insurance eligibility criteria. Under the agreement, Laurentian Bank will repurchase an additional C$115m of branch-originated ineligible mortgages during 3Q18 and provide a C$55m cash reserve deposit to the third-party purchaser as additional credit enhancement to the programme, which will be remitted to the bank over time as the branch-originated mortgage loans amortise. The bank is also reviewing all B2B bank and branch-originated mortgage loans portfolio insured by CMHC and has provided CMHC with a C$20m cash reserve deposit, pending the conclusion of the review, which CMHC will assess. The bank says it has implemented improved quality control and origination processes since November 2017.

EMEA
Ashurst has hired Jonathan Walsh as a securitisation partner at its London global markets practice. Walsh joins from Baker McKenzie where he was senior partner in the finance group and global head of securitisation.

Aviva Investors has formed a new real assets business, bringing together direct real estate, infrastructure, structured finance and private debt under a single leadership and operating structure. Mark Versey has been appointed cio, real assets, overseeing around 300 professionals in five locations – London, Norwich, Paris, Frankfurt and Toronto - working across fund management, asset management, asset origination, underwriting, research and business management. The real assets leadership team also includes: Barry Fowler, md, alternative income; Daniel McHugh, md, real estate investments; David Skinner, md, real estate strategy and fund management; and Chris Urwin, director of research, real assets. The firm has also agreed to sell its real estate multi-manager business and its interest in Encore+ to LaSalle Investment Management. The deal will see approximately £6bn of assets transferring on completion, with Aviva’s global real estate ceo Ed Casal joining LaSalle as part of the transaction.

Hovnanian dispute settled
Solus Alternative Asset Management has decided to settle its dispute over the recent refinancing transaction involving GSO Capital Partners and Hovnanian Enterprises (SCI passim). The terms of the settlement reached by Solus and GSO included an agreement by GSO to consent to the indenture amendments necessary to allow Hovnanian to make the interest payment that it did not make to its own subsidiary on 1 May 2018 prior to the expiration of the grace period, which Hovnanian has now done. GSO has also agreed not to support any future failure to pay events affecting Hovnanian. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

ILS
Hamilton Insurance Group has appointed Brenton Slade as svp of Hamilton Capital Partners, a new business unit that will be tasked with the further development of the firm’s capital management capabilities. Slade will join Hamilton on 19 June and report to group cfo Jonathan Reiss. He was previously coo at The Horseshoe Group and before that was chief marketing and capital markets officer for Flagstone Reinsurance, where his responsibilities included ILS, cat bonds and sidecars, and evp and principal of West End Capital Management.

North America
Credit Agricole has strengthened its US credit platform with three new hires. Among them is Beth Starr, who will be based in New York and joins the bank as head of ABS syndicate for the Americas, reporting to Nicolas Leopardi, head of debt syndicate Americas. Starr was previously head of loan capital markets at Spruce Finance and has also worked at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Jefferies and CommonBond.

Peoples Group has appointed three new members to its board, including Laura Rubino. Rubino has over 24 years' experience in the Canadian financial services sector, spanning wholesale banking and independent brokerage operations. She brings expertise in debt capital markets and has held leadership roles in origination, marketing, trading, risk management, structuring and securitisation activities.

NPL securitisation underway
Banco BPM has approved the assignment of a €5.1bn gross nominal value portfolio of non-performing loans to the Red Sea SPV. In relation to the planned securitisation, the bank intends to put in place a GACS guarantee for the senior notes. Banco BPM will subscribe to the senior, mezzanine and junior tranches, the latter two of which will be subsequently transferred to third-party investors. The transaction is part of a €13bn disposal plan dubbed Project Exodus.

RFC on Volcker amendments
The US Fed has asked for comment on a proposal to simplify and streamline compliance requirements relating to the Volcker rule, in light of compliance uncertainty created by the complexity of the rule. The proposed changes would: tailor the rule's compliance requirements based on the size of a firm's trading assets and liabilities; provide more clarity by revising the definition of ‘trading account’ in the rule, in part by relying on commonly used accounting definitions; clarify that firms that trade within appropriately developed internal risk limits are engaged in permissible market making or underwriting activity; streamline the criteria that apply when a banking entity seeks to rely on the hedging exemption from the proprietary trading prohibition; limit the impact of the Volcker rule on the foreign activity of foreign banks; and simplify the trading activity information that banking entities are required to provide to the agencies. Comment will be accepted for 60 days after the proposal's publication in the Federal Register.

Sole adviser approved
The board of THL Credit Senior Loan Fund has approved THL Credit Advisors, the fund's current sub-adviser, to serve as its sole investment adviser. The fund's current advisory agreement with Four Wood Capital Advisors will terminate on 21 June, along with the its investor support services agreement with FWCA's affiliate Four Wood Capital Partners. Under the new agreement with THL Credit, the annual fee payable by the fund has been reduced from 1.05% to 0.80% of the value of its average daily managed assets and certain non-management expenses borne by the fund will not exceed 0.25% per year. In connection with the new advisory relationship, the board has appointed THL Credit senior md Brian Good as an interested trustee. Steven Baffico, a managing partner and ceo of FWCP, will remain on the board.