Citigroup, Banks Agree on `Super-SIV,' Person Says
Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the three largest U.S. banks, reached an agreement on the structure of an $80 billion fund to help revive the market for short-term debt, a person familiar with the talks said yesterday.
Bankers working on the deal met at Bank of America's offices in New York on Nov. 9 and settled on a simpler plan than initially proposed last month, according to the person, who declined to be named because the agreement isn't public. Under the original initiative brokered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the fund would buy some of the $320 billion in assets held by so-called structured-investment vehicles, known as SIVs.
The banks are pushing to have the fund in place by yearend because SIVs are unable to get short-term credit to finance their higher-yielding investments as losses on subprime mortgages drive investors from all but the safest government debt. The plan still has to win the confidence of investors amid forecasts from Deutsche Bank AG analysts today that losses related to subprime mortgages may reach $400 billion worldwide.
``The whole thing is flawed,'' said Graham Fisher & Co. managing director Josh Rosner, whose New York-based firm analyzes structured finance and real estate investments. ``As opposed to recognizing losses, we're trying to roll those losses into the future, regardless of the sanity or safety and soundness of doing that.''
A fund term sheet may be ready in as few as two weeks, once ratings companies evaluate the super-SIV and the banks obtain tax and legal opinions, the person said.
Borrow Short, Buy Long
Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos and JPMorgan spokesman Brian Marchiony declined to comment. Both firms are based in New York. Scott Silvestri, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, said he had no immediate comment. The New York Times reported yesterday that the banks had reached the agreement.
Citigroup rose 47 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $33.57 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Bank of America was flat at $43.98, while JPMorgan climbed 8 cents to $42.39.
SIVs borrow in the short-term commercial paper market to invest in longer-dated securities ranging from mortgage bonds to bank debt.
Writedowns
The asset-backed commercial paper market has been shrinking for 13 straight weeks in the U.S. and last week declined the most in two months. Debt maturing in 270 days or less and backed by mortgages, credit-card loans and other assets fell $29.5 billion, or 3.4 percent, to a seasonally adjusted $845.2 billion for the week ended Nov. 7, according to the Federal Reserve in Washington.
SIV assets have dwindled by at least $75 billion since July as the companies struggled to raise short-term debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The net asset value of SIVs has fallen to 71 percent of initial capital from 102 percent in June, Moody's Investors Service said last week. Net asset value measures the difference between SIV assets and liabilities, expressed as a percentage of its capital.
International Securities Trading Corp. in Dublin said today it's writing down at least 70 million euros ($102 million) from holdings of SIVs. Standard Chartered Plc sold $5 billion of assets since August from its SIV, called Whistlejacket, the Sunday Telegraph reported yesterday.
Paulson told reporters in Washington on Nov. 9 that he expected the SIV fund to be in place by the end of the year.
``I'm saying that from the postings I get,'' he said.
Citigroup's SIVs
JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said two days earlier that the banks were working to meet that goal. Credit strategists including Vishwanath Tirupattur at Morgan Stanley and Christian Stracke at CreditSights Inc. in London have said they're skeptical banks will be able to convince SIV debt holders to participate in the fund.
An SIV needs the approval of three-quarters of its senior debt holders before it can sell assets to the fund, analysts say. The structure for the super-SIV that the banks agreed to Nov. 9 may lower that requirement, according to the person briefed on the discussions. The fund may also impose fees of as much as 100 basis points, or 1 percentage point, the person said.
SIVs, pioneered by Citigroup in the 1980s, sold commercial paper to fund purchases of assets including collateralized-debt obligations that have slid in value as mortgage defaults rose. The companies' access to funding slumped as the asset-backed commercial paper market shrank for 12 straight weeks.
Rating Downgrades
The creation of the new fund, known as the master liquidity enhancement conduit, or M-LEC, preceded the resignations of Citigroup CEO Charles Prince and his counterpart at Merrill Lynch & Co., Stan O'Neal. Both were forced to step down after their companies disclosed at least $19 billion of writedowns, mostly from bonds linked to subprime mortgages.
Citigroup took action on Nov. 5 to shore up its SIVs. The New York-based bank provided $7.6 billion of emergency financing to the seven SIVs it runs after they were unable to repay maturing debt.
Moody's said Nov. 7 that it downgraded or placed on review for a downgrade the credit ratings on debt sold by 16 SIVs that manage $33 billion. |