S&P Capital IQ, one of the world's largest providers of multi-asset class data, research and analytics to global markets and investors, today announced significant enhancements to its market-leading ABSXchange structured finance analytics platform designed to aid market participants' analysis of their ABS portfolios.
These improvements include allowing clients to assign liquidation schedules to loans, set loans to add interest shortfalls to the principal balance and view cash-flow projections for individual loans.
Further improvements enable faster delivery of the Portfolio Analytics application, while the updated Excel Add-in interface now only shows fields relevant to the deal under observation.
"The on-going process of upgrades to ABSXchange reflects the ever-changing nature of the structured finance market and the evolving needs of its participants," says Bruce Christie, Director at S&P Capital IQ. "S&P Capital IQ remains committed to supporting analysis shifting priorities and maintaining ABSXchange's position as the pre-eminent structured finance analytics platform in Europe."
New special features in ABSXchange include:
• Improved loan assumptions editor
Given the increased level of uncertainty in the CMBS market due to the credit crisis, ABSXchange now provides users with the ability to create liquidation schedules for each of the underlying loans in a deal. Using the Loan Assumptions Editor in Single Bond analytics, subscribers can create and assign liquidation curves to each loan. Furthermore, the option to add any interest shortfalls to the principal balance when the loan is liquidated has been added to the Loan Assumptions Editor.
• Individual loan cash-flow projections
Many CMBS deals rely on a handful of large loans. ABSXchange not only allows users to see the cash-flow projections for the pool of loans as a whole, but also to see projections for each of the underlying loans. This allows analysts to have more clarity on the performance of each loan in a deal where one or two loans can have a large effect on the performance of the deal as a whole.
• New Excel Add-in 2.0
The first phase of a new Excel Add-in will be launched by the end of the month and includes a significant increase in speed, more data fields, and the flexibility to create reports tailored to a user's needs. The release also features improved usability through the addition of an intuitive new interface to browse data fields and statements, which are customized in relation to the specific deal a user is looking at by only showing the relevant available fields.
In addition, three template sheets for RMBS, CMBS and ABS have also been introduced and allow users to display all the data relevant to a deal by just entering the ISIN, Cusip or Ticker Series Bond.