Sector developments and company hires

Hertz review reversed
Moody's has changed the direction of review for 11 tranches of rental car ABS issued by Hertz Vehicle Financing II (HVF II) to under review for upgrade from under review for downgrade. The action is prompted by: the recent court-approved order requiring Hertz to make lease payments and remit required vehicle sales proceeds (SCI 31 July), increasing credit enhancement and alleviating some performance uncertainty for the senior notes; current strong used vehicle prices and sales volumes; and the majority of the noteholders taking an active role in negotiating a favourable short-term outcome in Hertz's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings that will result in the paydown of roughly half of the aggregate balance of the senior notes. Moody's downgraded these ratings and placed them under review for further downgrade on 29 May.

In other news…

Freddie CRT rating outlook revised
Fitch has taken various rating actions on 32 classes and related exchangeable notes from four GSE credit risk transfer transactions issued between 2014 and 2015 in response to the placement of the US sovereign rating on negative outlook (SCI 7 August). All classes of notes from STACR 2014-HQ2, 2015-HQ2, 2015-DNA1 and 2015-DNA3 have been affirmed, but the rating outlook for 16 of them has been revised to negative.

North America
René Mück has been promoted to head of capital partners Americas at Munich Re America and will also join the executive leadership team at the firm. Mück previously served as head of underwriting non-life in Munich Re’s Japan branch.