World important news by Lucinda

UPDATE 1-Irish banks’ reliance on emergency funding steady

Irish banks, at the root of the country’s financial crisis and its 85 billion euros EU-IMF bailout, are reliant on central bank loans to fund their day-to-day operations after losing tens of billions of euros in deposits and being largely excluded from wholesale lending markets.As part of their bailout, Irish banks have pledged to shed over 70 billion euros in assets by the end of 2013, via disposal and run-off, to reduce their funding requirements and wean themselves off central bank funding.Ireland’s banking supervisor said he expected the banks’ outstanding loans from the ECB and the Irish central bank to have reduced by the end of the year when they are scheduled to have sold 16 billion euros worth of loans.Banks had 100.36 billion euros in outstanding loans from the ECB at the end of September compared to 97.9 billion euros at the end of August. The bulk of those loans have been taken out by domestic Irish banks but the overall figure also includes foreign subsidiaries based in Ireland.Irish banks’ emergency loans from the Irish central bank fell to 53.26 billion euros from 55.9 billion euros at the end of August.The ECB lends to Irish banks at 1.5 percent. The Irish central bank lends at a higher rate but does not disclose the level.

10/14/11

TEXT-S&P lowers rtg on CLO SMILE 2007 class E nts;rest afrmd

OVERVIEW— Today’s actions follow a credit and cash flow review of the transaction in light of the latest performance data available.— We have lowered the rating on the class E notes to ‘B- (sf)’, and affirmed the ratings on the remaining classes of notes.— SMILE Securitisation Company 2007 is a Dutch CLO of loans granted to SMEs by ABN AMRO Bank .Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today lowered its credit rating on the class E notes in SMILE Securitisation Company 2007 B.V. (SMILE 2007). At the same time, we affirmed our ratings on the remaining classes of notes (see list below).Today’s actions follow a review of the performance of the portfolio underlying the SMILE 2007 transaction, and a cash flow analysis of the payment structure.Since our last rating action in March 2010, all classes of notes continued to repay on a pro rata basis using scheduled principal proceeds, while unscheduled principal was used to repay the notes sequentially starting with class A. The principal amount outstanding following the September 2011 payment date is about 35.8% for class A, and 60% for classes B, C, D, E, and the unrated class F. The remaining pool factor is about 37.5%. The continued amortization of the notes has led to an increase in available credit enhancement for the class A, B, C, and D notes compared with our last review. In our view, the available credit enhancement is adequate to sustain the current ratings on these notes.At the same time, we have observed an increase in defaults since our last rating action. As of September 2011, cumulative defaults are about EUR70.97 million—1.45% of the original portfolio balance—including EUR33.97 million of foreclosed loans. This compares with about EUR46 million of cumulative defaults—0.94% of the original balance—when we last took rating action. The current stock of defaulted loans that have not yet completed foreclosure stands at about EUR37 million, of which about 38.5% have been recovered to date.We note that the transaction currently performs within our stressed default assumptions, and that to date, recoveries achieved following completion of foreclosure have been above our assumptions made at closing. The transaction’s reserve account balance, which has built up since closing using periodic excess spread only, stands at about EUR13.4 million. As of September 2011, cumulative net losses amount to about EUR8.7 million, corresponding to an overall achieved recovery rate of about 74%. These net losses have been absorbed by excess spread. As a consequence, the balance of the reserve account has reduced to about EUR13.4 million, compared with EUR14.6 million when we last took rating action.We expect the balance of the reserve account to reduce further over the coming payment dates as more loans complete their workout procedure. In addition, from the information provided by ABN AMRO Bank, we note that a non-negligible amount of loans—about EUR93.5 million—remains categorized in the lowest categories on ABN AMRO Bank N.V.’s internal rating scale, which we believe poses the risk of further defaults and losses.With regard to the class E notes, the rise in defaulted loans has led to the fact that their principal repayment now depends on the recoveries achieved on them. In our view, the credit enhancement available to the class E notes is no longer adequate to maintain their current rating, and we have therefore lowered the rating on these notes by three notches to ‘B- (sf)’.SMILE 2007 is ABN AMRO Bank’s third collateralized loan obligation (CLO) of Dutch small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). The transaction closed in February 2007, to achieve economic and regulatory capital relief through the transfer of risk associated with a pool of loans to Dutch SMEs. As of September 2011, the portfolio consists of 6,616 loans remaining, with the largest 10 obligors making up less than 3% of the overall portfolio balance.RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH— Principles Of Credit Ratings, Feb. 16, 2011— Counterparty And Supporting Obligations Methodology And Assumptions, Dec. 6, 2010— Ratings Affirmed On All Notes In SMILE Securitisation Company 2007’s Dutch CLO Of SMEs, March 17, 2010— Methodology And Assumptions: Update To The Cash Flow Criteria For European RMBS Transactions, Jan. 6, 2009— Methodology: Credit Stability Criteria, May 3, 2010— New Issue: SMILE Securitisation Company 2007 B.V., March 8, 2007RATINGS LISTClass RatingTo FromSMILE Securitisation Company 2007 B.V.EUR4.907 Billion Asset-Backed Floating-Rate NotesRating LoweredE B- (sf) BB- (sf)Ratings AffirmedA AAA (sf)B AA (sf)C A (sf)D BBB (sf)

10/14/11

UPDATE 1-Wealth managers pick Apple over RIM devices

* Mobile devices key for clients, wealth managers sayBy Ashley LauNEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Wealth managers prefer using Apple (AAPL.O) products for business rather than Research in Motion’s (RIMM.O) BlackBerry devices, a survey by Aite Group showed on Thursday.Of 402 financial advisers polled, 45 percent said they would choose an Apple iPhone or iPad, while 14 percent would pick a BlackBerry.The research firm, which focuses on financial services, conducted the survey in March, well before the recent RIM outage which left large pockets of BlackBerry users around the world without access to email and other functions.”I’m not surprised that Apple had made inroads, but I am surprised that the statistic was that weighted against the BlackBerry,” said Phil Michaels, head of business development at Aegis Capital Corp.Michaels said about 90 percent of the advisers at his company use BlackBerry smartphones because of the ease of key functions and integrated calendar availability.”I always thought BlackBerrys were still preferred on the business side and Apple was more preferred on the individual user side - the creative, non-business side,” he said.The study found that using mobile devices was increasingly important to advisers, many of whom service clients with hand-held devices who have access to online brokerage services.Nearly half the advisers surveyed said having access to business applications was an “important” or “very important” part of their technology strategy for 2011.

10/13/11

UPDATE 1-Renaissance snubs Plato Learning, favours Permira’s bid

Renaissance, which received a revised $455 million takeover offer from Permira last month, said its board continues to recommend shareholders accept Permira’s offer.On Monday, Renaissance said it had received a revised offer from Plato, which valued Renaissance at $16.90 a share. Renaissance had said it would give “proper consideration in due course” to Plato’s bid.Renaissance said its board concluded that the revised definitive proposal from Plato could not reasonably be expected to lead to a superior proposal.Terrance and Judith Paul, who founded Renaissance in 1986, and members of their family own 69 percent of the company’s shares.The family said they will not support an acquisition of Renaissance by Plato, and have agreed to vote in favor of the amended Permira offer.Permira had first struck a deal to buy Wisconsin-based Renaissance for $14.85 per share in August, but these plans were upset when Plato stepped in with a higher offer of $15.50 a share in September.Shares of Renaissance Learning closed at $17.01 on Monday on Nasdaq.

10/11/11