Asset-backed bonds

Asset-backed bonds, for instance, are issued in a number of tranches— related securities from the same issuer—each of which pays a different fixed or floating coupon. Nevertheless, this is still commonly referred to as the fixed-income market. 

As noted, the coupon rate is the interest rate the issuer agrees to pay each year. The coupon rate is used to determine the annual coupon payment which can be delivered to the bondholder once per year or in two or more equal installments. As noted, for bonds issued in European bond markets and the Eurobond markets, coupon payments are made annually. Conversely, in the United Kingdom, United States, and Japan, the usual practice is for the issuer to pay the coupon in two semiannual installments. An important exception is structured products (e.g., asset-backed securities) which often deliver cash flows more frequently (e.g., quarterly, monthly). 

Some bonds include a provision in their offer particulars that gives either the bondholder and/or the issuer an option to enforce early redemption of the bond. The most common type of option embedded in a bond is a call feature. A call provision grants the issuer the right to redeem all or part of the debt before the specified maturity date. An issuing company may wish to include such a feature as it allows it to replace an old bond issue with a lower coupon rate issue if interest rates in the market have declined. As a call feature allows the issuer to change the maturity date of a bond it is considered harmful to the bondholder s interests therefore the market price of the bond at any time will reflect this. A call option is included in all asset-backed securities based on mortgages, for obvious reasons. 

Callable bonds, putable bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities are examples of (1). Floating-rate securities and inflation-indexed bonds are examples of (2). Convertible bonds and exchangeable bonds are examples of (3). 

The source of dollar return called reinvestment income represents the interest earned from reinvesting the bond s interim cash flows (interest and/or principal payments) until the bond is removed from the investor s portfolio. With the exception of zero-coupon bonds, fixed income securities deliver coupon payments that can be reinvested. Moreover, amortizing securities (e.g., mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities) make periodic principal repayments which can also be invested. 

While covered bonds are often regarded as similar to asset-backed securities (ABS) and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), many noteworthy differences exist between them ... 

This discussion covers the main factors affecting bond returns in the European fixed income market, namely, the random fluctuations of interest rates and bond yield spreads, the risk of an obligor defaulting on its debt, or issuer-specific risk, and currency risk. There are also other, more subtle sources of risk. Some bonds such as mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are exposed to prepayment risk, but such instruments still represent a small fraction of the total outstanding European debt. Bonds with embedded options are exposed to volatility risk. However, it is not apparent that this risk is significant outside derivatives markets. 

In addition to the more traditional cash flows from mortgages and loan assets, investment banks underwrite bonds secured with flows received by leisure and recreational facilities, such as health clubs, and other entities, such as nursing homes. Bonds securitizing mortgages are usually treated as a separate class, termed mortgage-backed securities, or MBSs. Those with other underlying assets are known as asset-backed securities, or ABSs. The type of asset class backing a securitized bond issue determines the method used to analyze and value it. 

Notes issued in synthetic structures are organized by tranche. With the proceeds from the notes it issues to investors, the SPV purchases high-quality (AAA) liquid securities—for example, U.S. Treasuries, bank asset-backed paper such as credit card ABS, and German bonds, such as Pfandbriefe —to serve as collateral. This collateral will generate LIBOR-related interest and principal cash flows that the SPV passes on to the investors together with the swap premium, which creates an additional credit spread on the notes. The cash flows from the collateral may not match the payments due on the issued notes—for example, the bonds used as collateral may pay a flxed rate and the issued notes a floating one. To remedy this, the... 

This chapter examines a number of issues relevant to participants in the fixed-income markets. The analysis presented is based on government-bond trading and is confined to generic bonds that are default-free, with no consideration given to factors that apply to corporate bonds, asset- and mortgage-backed bonds, convertibles, or other nonvanilla securities, or to issues such as credit risk and prepayment risk. Nevertheless, the principles adduced are pertinent to all relative-value fixed-income analysis. 

A key benefit of securitization notes is the ability to tailor risk—return profiles. For example, if there is a lack of assets of any specific credit rating, these can be created via securitization. Securitized notes frequently offer better risk—reward performance than corporate bonds of the same rating and maturity. While this might seem peculiar (why should one AA-rated bond perform better in terms of credit performance than another just because it is asset-backed ), this often occurs because the originator holds the first-loss piece in the structure. 

But first, you should know what types of bonds are available. Among the types of bonds you can choose from are U.S. government securities, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage and asset-backed securities, federal agency securities and foreign government bonds. There are also many short-maturity options such as Treasury bills, bank certificates of deposit and commercial paper. 

Investors, however, like companies that have large tangible assets, because they think they have a better chance of getting their money back should the company become bankrupt. The tangible assets are the undepreciated assets of the company. So if a company is interested in selling bonds, it looks better if it has depreciated its assets slowly. As a result, some companies keep dual books-one for the public and the other for the Internal Revenue Service. There is nothing illegal about this. The capitalized cost minus the amount that has been depreciated is called the book value of the asset. This may be above, below, or the same as its resale value. 

Most debt capital is raised by issuing long-term bonds. A mortgage is a bond that is backed by pledging a specific real asset as security against the loan. An unsecured bond is called a debenture. The ratio of total debt divided by total assets is known as the debt ratio (DR) or leverage of the company. 

The primary advantage of hedge fund portfohos is that they have provided double-digit returns going back to the 1980s with very low risk. Indeed, hedge fund portfolio volatility is close to that of bonds. With much higher returns and low correlation compared with traditional asset classes, they exhibit the necessary characteristics required to enhance overall portfolio perfotmance. 

At the heart of the Merton s assumptions, equity holders have an embedded put option by which if at maturity the firm value is greater than promised obligation ox face value, the lender gets back the bond s amount and shareholder maintains the ownership of the company otherwise, if the firm value is lower than the promised payment, the bondholders receive an amount less than bond s face value and the firm defaults. Therefore, in the case of high-put option value, shareholders will have an advantage to walk away from the loan payment, leaving the asset value to the bondholders. 

As noted above, CLOs are backed by pools of bank loans and CBOs by portfolios of bonds. The two types of underlying assets differ in ways that affect the analyses of the securities they collateralize. Among the differences are the following ... 

Lipper has roughly 100 different objectives in its classification system for bond funds, compared with 40 for equity funds. History of assets for funds tracked by Lipper goes back 40 years. 

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