The Credit Suisse Leveraged Loan Index tracks the performance of senior loans.

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Their high credit scores and the strength of the loans' performance during the most recent downturn may have helped investors gain more confidence in the debt as an alternative haven.

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Issuers of subprime RMBS are required to disclose historical performance information for past securitizations that contain mortgage loans similar to those in the RMBS being offered to investors.

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C. bought a database of subprime loans from a company called Loan Performance in order to study the problem more closely, something that, apparently, no other government regulator had thought to do.

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Interestingly, in further research in Brazil, Musacchio and Lazzarini found that companies that received direct government investment, as opposed to subsidized loans, tended to have better performance overall, a phenomenon they attribute to increased accountability and oversight.

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These investors buy the securities expecting certain performance characteristics, including payment flows from the borrowers of the underlying loans.

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The defects scandal came on top of disastrous performance last year by its US division, which handed out cheap loans in an effort to boost sales, but then found that many customers were unable to make their repayments.

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We are now working with Chinese financial organizations that are willing to make multi-year loans to FIEs in China that are based on the performance of the China operations themselves, and do not require a guarantee by the parent company.

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