Company hires and sector developments

EBRD hires NPL vet

The EBRD has appointed Andreea Moraru to lead its operations in Greece and Cyprus from November, following the retirement of the current holder of the role, Sabina Dziurman. Based in Athens, Moraru will continue the EBRD’s efforts to support the private sector in the two countries, improve competitiveness and strengthen the regional integration of the local economies with investments and policy engagement. She is currently a senior banker within the EBRD’s financial institutions team and has been instrumental in leading and structuring a wide range of debt and equity projects, as well as developing leasing, covered bonds and NPL business in the EBRD’s countries of operations.

Elizabeth Finance development

The servicer of Elizabeth Finance 2018-1 has been notified that the mezzanine lender wishes to make a cure payment in respect of the outstanding loan event of default that occurred as a result of the loan to covenant breach under the Maroon loan. The cure payment has to be made by no later than 16 July 2019.

Origination co-operation

Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp and Assured Guaranty (Europe) have entered into an exclusive co-operation agreement with independent arranger and advisor DTW Capital Solutions, based in Sydney, Australia. DTW will act as origination consultant to Assured Guaranty for the provision of financial guarantees in relation to infrastructure finance and structured finance transactions with underlying assets located in Australia or New Zealand. In this role, DTW will facilitate the introduction of prospective issuers to Assured Guaranty and other market participants undertaking transactions where financial guarantees could be beneficial.

Pre-2019 STS designation request

Lloyds subsidiary Bank of Scotland has announced that it intends to notify ESMA in respect of the STS designation of the notes in its Penarth Master Issuer programme, and has appointed PCS as an authorised third party to assess the compliance of the securitisation funded by the notes with the STS criteria for pre-2019 issuances prior to the originator submitting the STS notification.