Sector developments and company hires

CMB purchase programme
The Bank of Canada has announced that it stands ready, as a proactive measure, to provide support to the Canada Mortgage Bond (CMB) market to ensure that it continues to function well. This would include, as required, purchases of CMBs in the secondary market through a competitive tender process. As a starting point, the bank will target purchases of up to C$500m per week. Operations will be conducted twice weekly and will continue for as long as market conditions warrant. Purchases will be conducted through primary dealers.

Delayed call
NewDay Cards has postponed the scheduled redemption date of NewDay Partnership Funding Series 2015-1 by a year. The lender now plans to call the transaction on the distribution date falling in April 2021.

Fed support increased
The US Fed is set to establish a commercial paper funding facility (CPFF) to provide a liquidity backstop via an SPV that will purchase unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper rated A1/P1 directly from eligible companies. By eliminating much of the risk that eligible issuers will not be able to repay investors by rolling over their maturing CP obligations, the facility should encourage investors to engage in term lending in the CP market. The US Treasury will provide US$10bn of credit protection to the Fed in connection with the CPFF. The move follows the FOMC’s decision to increase SOMA holdings of Treasury securities and agency MBS by at least US$500bn and US$200bn respectively. Principal payments from agency debt and MBS holdings will also be reinvested in agency MBS. Agency MBS purchases will generally be concentrated in recently produced coupons in 30-year and 15-year fixed rate agency MBS in the TBA market. Around US$80bn in agency MBS is expected to be purchased for the monthly period that runs through 13 April. 

North America
SFA has appointed Jen Earyes head of policy. Earyes joins from Navient, where she served in a number of roles, including most recently as director of corporate development and head of the LIBOR transition office. Prior to joining Navient, she served as manager of corporate finance operations and in various corporate finance analyst roles at Sallie Mae.