Iain Balkwill

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Connect: Read more about Iain Balkwill
Firm/Organization: Reed Smith LLP
Blogs: Structured Finance In Brief

Latest Articles

Thus far CMBS has had a storming year and all current indicators point towards 2018 being a bumper year for the product.  After two years of relative malaise on the primary issuance front, the first half of 2018 has proven to be anything but sluggish.  Notable transactions that have so far taken place include Citibank and Morgan Stanley ‎closing an extremely well priced transaction secured by Finnish assets (a CMBS 2.0 first), Bank of America Merrill…
Rather like the Hans Christian Anderson story about the little match girl, the news that BAML has successfully launched two CMBS deals in quick succession has flickered light into an otherwise cold and beleaguered primary issuance market.  Not only do these transactions provide a clear indicator that there is still life in the market, but this news is the most positive development for the industry since the summer of 2015, when adverse macro-economic factors precipitated…
The recent news that Blackstone and Lone Star have just securitized a portfolio of re-performing loans secured by Spanish and Irish real estate respectively, could potentially mark the arrival of a new era for the European securitization market. Indeed, if these transactions prove themselves to be the green shoots for the emergence of a new fixed income product, then this has the potential to have widespread positive ramifications for not only yield hungry fixed income…
During the summer I wrote about the marvels of the Italian tightrope trick (The NPL Circus: the Italian Tightrope) and remarked on the massive feat of the Italian legislature in making the seemingly impossible, possible with the establishment of a state guaranteed securitisation structure that is capable of divesting a significant volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) without “bailing in” creditors. With the news that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had failed to secure a…
This summer, fans of the non-performing loan (NPL) circus, are in for a treat with the launch of the Italian tightrope trick. Spurred on by the recent European Banking Authority stress tests, the news last week that Banca Popolare di Bari will become the first bank to utilise the Italian state guarantee scheme and deploy securitisation technology as a means of off-loading a €470m portfolio of non-performing loans is a significant step forward for the global…
Fuelled by continued macro-economic uncertainty, the European CMBS market is currently experiencing a prolonged period of malaise. Meanwhile the Italian legislative cogs have continued to turn. The news last week that the Italian government has finally approved a decree on NPL securitisations, which comes hot off the heels of the proposals to establish a private sector bail-out for banks and the promise of insolvency law reform, once again demonstrates that Italy is the jurisdiction to…
Almost a year ago to the day, I posted a blog questioning whether CMBS was the answer to Italian bank deleveraging woes.  One year on, I am pleased to say that the Italian government (clearly channelling me!) has just reached an agreement with the European Commission to provide for a guarantee mechanism for the securitisation of Italian non-performing loans (NPLs).  In effect, the European legislature has given the green light to the deployment of…
Earlier this month I set out my CMBS predictions for 2016 in the Investment Adviser (Broadening the scope of CMBS loan issuance), where I predicted that macro-economic conditions would continue to challenge the re-establishment of CMBS as financing tool for European commercial real estate (CRE).  Indeed, the first few weeks of the year have done little to alleviate these residual concerns given the renewed and heightened volatility in the Chinese capital market, the…
Given that it is coming up to a year since I posted a blog (CMBS – it’s time to dance to the beat!) in which I surmised that “I don’t just want to see CMBS hit the dance floor – I want to see it win a contest!”, now would seem an opportune time to reflect on whether CMBS has lived up to any semblance of this hype. Indeed, if we extended this…
The European CMBS 2.0 market was launched in June 2011 and in the years that have since followed, twenty four public rated deals have so far hit the market.  Given that only seven of these deals have featured multiple loans and the smallest loan securitised prior to November 2015 had a balance of €55 million, the European market appears to be largely confined to the securitisation of large balance sheet loans.  This is a stark…