Briefs: Liberty launches RMBS, S&P rates ASX clearing house, big banks fined over FX fix

Banking Day staff
  • Liberty Financial has launched its second issue of non-conforming residential mortgage-backed securities for the year, seeking A$398 million of funds. Liberty Series 2014-2 Trust is supported by a collateral pool that includes loans to borrowers with impaired credit histories (17.4 per cent of the total) and low doc loans (12.5 per cent). Moody's has classified most of the low doc loans as "alternative documentation", which means that Liberty has performed verification checks over and above the typical checks for low doc loans.

  • Standard & Poor's Ratings Services yesterday assigned its AA- long-term and A-1+ short-term issuer credit ratings to ASX Clear. ASXC operates as the central counterparty for cash market securities listed on the ASX market and derivatives contracts. "The issuer credit ratings on ASXC reflect our opinion that ASXC is a core operating subsidiary of ASX, and hence is likely to be a full beneficiary of financial resources provided by the ASX group in the unlikely event it were required," S&P said.

  • Regulators in the United States, Britain and Switzerland ordered five banks to pay about US$3.3 billion ($3.8 billion) to settle a probe into the manipulation of benchmark foreign-exchange rates. The AFR notes that Switzerland's UBS was ordered to pay the most at US$800 million ($919 million), according to statements from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Citigroup was ordered to pay US$668 million, followed by JPMorgan Chase at US$662 million, the filings show. Royal Bank of Scotland paid US$634 million and HSBC paid US$618 million.