Market updates and sector developments

WSFS Financial Corporation’s global capital markets team is expanding into the CLO market, as it seeks to grow its wealth business and generate fee income on a national scale. To support this expansion, the company has recruited two new associates with expertise in CLOs.

WSFS Global Capital Markets provides global services to the leveraged loan and capital markets, with capitalisation in excess of US$1bn. Services include loan agency services, project finance administration, investment grade and high yield debt offerings, SPE services, and default and bankruptcy services.

Joining the WSFS Global Capital Markets team are Anita Patel, CLO analyst, and Samuel Fatoki, relationship manager.

In other news…

CMU roadmap calls for further ‘targeted amendments’
The Finance Ministers of France and Germany have published a joint roadmap for the EU Capital Markets Union. The statement notes that strengthening the CMU is “a shared priority” for the two countries and that despite substantial recent progress on the CMU agenda, three first-order priorities should be focused on, in order for the EU to catch up with markets like the US.

One of these priorities is securitisation, which the roadmap describes as an “excellent tool” for the risk and liquidity management of banks, as well as being key to allowing banks to provide sufficient credit to companies by freeing up new lending capacities. In particular, the statement urges policymakers to use the opportunity of the Solvency 2 review to adopt further targeted amendments of the prudential rules for securitisation within this legislative cycle.

“A more comprehensive reform of the regulatory framework of securitisations might be necessary, in the longer run, in order to foster this critical tool that contributes to the financing of Europe’s economy. In that perspective, France and Germany will jointly identify areas where amendments are appropriate and possible and will promote these measures vis-a-vis the Commission and other stakeholders,” the statement concludes.