Securitization Polls and Awards

Running a successful securitization trustee business is all about balancing the need to sustain high levels of service, while building and maintaining scale by investing in the business. It is a difficult juggling act at the best of times, but in years of exceptionally strong volume, such as 2019, it marks the best from the rest.

2019 was a year of huge growth for the structured finance team at Morgan Lewis. With that growth, and the strong interplay of the structured finance practice with other practice areas of the firm, Morgan Lewis was able to work on some of the most interesting esoteric ABS deals of the year. The number of lawyers working in the structured finance practice grew from 45 to 60 between mid-2018 and 2020. The bulk of the new additions arrived in 2019, when seven new lawyers joined the practice in Washington, D.C, and four joined in both New York and Chicago.

The sheer amount of information, data and noise coming from the markets can be overwhelming even in the most benign periods, and investors need a reliable and impartial source to help them sort through it all. Rating agencies are a crucial conduit for this kind of analysis, and last year, the analysts at Moody’s Investors Service stood out among their peers as the most insightful, engaged, responsive and accessible research team, securing their win in GlobalCapital’s 2019 US Securitization Awards.

The rise of impact investing and environmental, social and governance strategies (ESG) have proved capital markets can be a driving force for positive change. Newmarket Capital, established to acquire and grow the structured solutions and impact-focused IIFC funds previously housed at Mariner Investment Group, is focused on strategies including development and infrastructure finance, socially responsible investments, and impact securitization. In partnership with Citi, the Newmarket team’s CITAH 2019 transaction securitizing affordable housing loans stands out as a prime example of accessing capital markets to address an urgent social need, earning our Most Innovative Securitization Deal of the Year for 2019.

Three broad themes drove Kramer Levin’s ABS practice to new heights in 2019. First, there was the ongoing adoption of clean energy deals by commercial issuers, adding to the already strong issuance from the residential side. Second, there was the rise of new asset classes including Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs), as private market investors sought new liquidity for their stakes in private investment funds. Third, an increase in the use of traditional private placements for ABS deals boosted the number of investor clients on the firm’s client roster. This was in addition to work in the timeshare sector and in the residential solar markets that have long been the backbone of Kramer Levin’s practice.

Since inception in 2014, Guggenheim’s structured finance franchise has demonstrated a strong commitment to broadening the reach of securitization and capital markets financing to new issuers and new asset classes. The team, led by industry veteran Cory Wishengrad, is stocked with senior structured finance talent hired from firms up and down Wall Street. In six years, Guggenheim Securities has brought an astounding 65 new issuers to market and introduced 19 new asset classes. That track record continued in 2019 and secured the firm’s spot as GlobalCapital’s Best Securitization Bank of the Year.

The spectre of the transition from Libor to Sofr has loomed over the market for several years with many technical issues still being worked out. Many in the market feel that the whole issue will end up in court, with judges being asked to decide the one fundamental question of who will end up paying for it. Against that backdrop, it takes a brave and committed issuer to step up to the plate and very publicly do a deal that breaks that log jam. For Freddie Mac, it was market leadership of the very highest order.

Dechert’s US CMBS practice stands out for the breadth of work it does, its range of clients and its cutting-edge regulatory work. This culminated in leading market shares in terms of volumes and values of deals, including being the number one counsel on deals in the CRE CLO space in 2019.

What Nomura has achieved in the US RMBS market since it decided to enter in 2013 is remarkable. In a little over six years, under the leadership of Gordon Sweely, head of securitized products, Americas, it has risen to number two in the league tables for the volume of deals done in 2019. It was involved in a large number of the most innovative and ground breaking transactions of the year as well. Perhaps most importantly, it has earned the respect and admiration of its clients and peers.