2008年12月30日星期二

Senior debt, Subordinated debt, Perpetual

See Chapters 27 and 44 of the Vernimmen

Senior debt is the debt held by creditors with either a security claim or a priority claim on repayment of the principal and the interest. Senior debt is also one of the types of debts used in LBO transactions.


See Chapters 27 and 44 of the Vernimmen

Subordinated debt is the debt repaid after the claims of the other creditors, in particular the senior creditors, have been settled. Subordinated debt is also called junior debt.

French equivalent: Titres subordonnés à durée indéterminée (TSDI)


See Chapter 7 of the Vernimmen

Perpetual subordinated loans and notes are never redeemable and thus continue to pay interest as long as the borrower remains solvent (see solvency). They have no duration because there is no contractual undertaking for repayment, which may take place when the issuer so wishes. If the issuer is liquidated, noteholders rank for repayment after other creditors (as they are subordinated debts) but before shareholders.
Perpetual subordinated loans and notes are also called perpetuals.

French equivalent: Titres Super Subordonnés (TSS)

Essential Features of Covered Bonds

From: "The Pfandbrief 2008|2009 – Facts and Figures about Europe’s Covered Bond Benchmark", published by Association of German Pandbrief Banks, 13th edition, Berlin 2008

Covered bonds are characterised by the following common essential features that are achieved under special-law based frameworks or general-law based frameworks:

1. The bond is issued by – or bondholders otherwise have full recourse to – a credit institution which is subject to public supervision and regulation;

2. Bondholders have a claim against a cover pool of financial assets in priority to the unsecured creditors of the credit institutions;

3. The credit institution has the ongoing obligation to maintain sufficient assets in the cover pool to satisfy the claims of covered bondholders at all times;

4. The obligations of the credit institution in respect of the cover pool are supervised by public or other independent bodies.

Pfandbrief

From: http://en.wikipedia.org

The Pfandbrief, a mostly triple-A rated German bank debenture, has become the blueprint of many covered bond models in Europe and beyond.

The Pfandbrief is collateralized by long-term assets such as property mortgages or public sector loans as stipulated in the Pfandbrief Act. Total volume outstanding in Pfandbriefe (the plural of Pfandbrief is Pfandbriefe in German) was EUR 889 billion in 2007. Pfandbrief bonds make up the third largest segment of the German bond market after public sectorbonds and unsecured bank debt.

Jumbo Pfandbrief

The Jumbo Pfandbrief, first brought to market in 1995, arose from a need to attract international investors to a market that had been largely of domestic interest. Instead of individual banks placing large-volume issues, the Jumbo Pfandbrief allows an issuing syndicate with the goal of marketing Jumbo Pfandbrief issues and of subsequently ensuring market making. A Jumbo Pfandbrief must have a minimum issuance volume of EUR 1 billion. The average issue size of a Jumbo Pfandbrief is about EUR 1.5 billion. A minimum of five market makers is required. Jumbo Pfandbriefe must be listed on the German stock exchange. [5] Total Jumbo covered bonds first-time sales amounted to EUR 161.3 billion in 2007. In 2007, the four biggest jumbo covered bond-issuing countries were France (24.7%), Spain (22.3%), Germany (20%), and the UK (10.7%).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: DR. LOUIS HAGEN | "The Pfandbrief 2008|2009 – Facts and Figures about Europe’s Covered Bond Benchmark", published by Association of German Pandbrief Banks, 13th edition, Berlin 2008

Pfandbrief are covered, interest-bearing bonds. They are issued by credit institutions with a license to engage in Pfandbrief business (Pfandbrief banks) and placed on the capital market. These credit institutions use them to fund certain loans that are secured by real estate liens, ship mortgages or claims against public-sector bodies. Depending on the type of collateralization, these bonds are referred to as Mortgage Pfandbriefe, Ship Pfandbriefe or Public Pfandbriefe. Most Pfandbriefe are issued in the form of bearer bonds, registered bonds also play an important role.

Links

Association of Germain Pfandbrief Banks: www.pfandbrief.org

Covered bond

From: http://en.wikipedia.org

Covered bonds are debt securities backed by cash flows from mortgages or public sector loans. They are similar in many ways to asset-backed securities created in securitization, but covered bond assets remain on the issuer’s consolidated balance sheet.

Essentially, a covered bond is a corporate bond with one important enhancement: recourse to a pool of assets that secures or "covers" the bond if the originator (usually a financial institution) becomes insolvent. This enhancement typically (although not always) results in the bonds' being assigned AAA credit ratings.

For the investor, one major advantage to a covered bond is that the debt and the underlying asset pool remain on the issuer's financials, and issuers must ensure that the pool consistently backs the covered bond. In the event of default, the investor has recourse to both the pool and the issuer.

Another advantage is that the interest is paid from an identifiable source of projected cash flow versus out of other financing operations. Because non-performing loans or prematurely paid debt must be replaced in the pool, success of the product for the issuer depends on the institution's ability to evaluate the assets in the pool and to rate and price the bond.

2008年2月29日星期五

SSO - Single Sign-On

From: http://www.dicodunet.com

Définition
Authentification unique

Description
Le but du système SSO est d'avoir un seul moyen de s'authentifier auprès d'un système informatique quelles que soient les applications à utiliser. Ce moyen peut être un compte d'utilisateur et un mot de passe ou bien une carte à puce.

Le système SSO permet de simplifier la vie des utilisateurs en ne multipliant pas les accès aux différentes applications, car une fois authentifié par le système, on peut lancer toutes les applications voulues sans remettre de mot de passe.

JSP (中文版本)

From: http://zh.wikipedia.org

JSP(全称JavaServer Pages)是由Sun Microsystems公司倡导和许多公司参与共同建立的一种使软件开发者可以响应客户端请求,而动态生成HTML、XML或其他格式文档的Web网页的技术标准。JSP技术是以Java语言作为脚本语言的,JSP网页为整个服务器端的Java库单元提供了一个接口来服务于HTTP的应用程序。

JSP使Java代码和特定的预定义动作可以嵌入到静态页面中。JSP句法增加了被称为JSP动作的XML标签,它们用来调用内建功能。另外,可以创建JSP标签库,然后象使用标准HTML或XML标签一样使用它们。标签库提供了一种和平台无关的扩展服务器性能的方法。

JSP被JSP编译器编译成Java Servlets。一个JSP编译器可以把JSP编译成JAVA代码写的servlet然后再由JAVA编译器来编译成机器码,也可以直接编译成二进制码。

JSP 和 Servlets
从架构上说,JSP可以被看作是从Servlets高级提炼而作为JAVA Servlet 2.1 API的扩展而应用。Servlets和JSPs最早都是由Sun Microsystems(升阳公司)开发的。从JSP1.2版本以来,JSP处于Java Community Process(有人译为:JAVA社区组织)开发模式下。JSR-53 规定了JSP 1.2 和 Servlet 2.4的规范,JSR-152 规定了 JSP 2.0的规范。2006年5月,JSP 2.1的规范作为Java EE 5 的一部份,在JSR-245中发布。

JSP 句法
一个JSP页面可以被分为以下几部份:

静态数据,如 HTML
JSP 指令,如 include 指令
JSP 脚本元素和变量
JSP 动作
用户自定义标签

静态数据
静态数据在输入文件中的内容和输出给HTTP 响应的内容完全一致。此时,该JSP输入文件会是一个没有内嵌JAVA或动作的HTML页面。而且,客户端每次请求都会得到相同的响应内容。

JSP 指令
JSP指令控制JSP编译器如何去生成 servlet,以下是可用的指令:

包含指令include – 包含指令通知JSP编译器把另外一个文件完全包含入当前文件中。效果就好象被包含文件的内容直接被粘贴到当前文件中一样。这个功能和C preprocessor所提供的很类似。被包含文件的扩展名一般都是 "jspf" (即 JSP Fragment,JSP碎片):
<%@ include file="somefile.jsp" %>
页面指令page – 页面指令有以下几个选项:
import 使一个JAVA导入声明被插入到最终页面文件。
contentType 规定了生成内容的类型。当生成非HTML内容或者当前字符集character set并非默认字符集时使用。
errorPage 处理HTTP请求时,如果出现异常则显示该错误提示信息页面。
isErrorPage 如果设置为TRUE,则表示当前文件是一个错误提示页面。
isThreadSafe 表示最终生成的servlet 是否安全线程( thread safe)。

<%@ page import="java.util.*" %> //example import导入样例
<%@ page contentType="text/html" %> //example contentType页面类型样例
<%@ page isErrorPage=false %> //example for non error page无错页面样例
<%@ page isThreadSafe=true %> //example for a thread safe JSP安全线程JSP样例会
注意: 在同一个JSP文件中只有"import"导入页面指令可以被多次使用。

标签库指令taglib – 标签库指令描述了要使用的JSP标签库。该指令需要指定一个前缀prefix(和C++的命名空间很类似)和标签库的描述URI:
<%@ taglib prefix="myprefix" uri="taglib/mytag.tld" %>

JSP脚本元素和变量

标准脚本变量
以下是永远可用的脚本变量:

out – JSPWriter用来写入响应流的数据
page – servlet自身
pageContext – 一个 PageContext 实例包括和整个页面相联系的数据,一个给定的HTML页面可以在多个JSP之间传递。
request – HTTP request 对象
response – HTTP response 对象
session – HTTP session 对象,在多个请求之间追踪一个客户的信息。

脚本元素
有三个基本的脚本元素,作用是使JAVA代码可以直接插入 servlet.

一种是声明标签,在JAVA SERVLET的类体中放入一个变量的定义。静态的数据成员也可以如此定义。
<%! int serverInstanceVariable = 1; %>
一种是脚本标签,在JAVA SERVLET的类的_jspService()方法中放入所包含的语句。
<% int localStackBasedVariable = 1; out.println(localStackBasedVariable); %>
一种是表达式标签,在JAVA SERVLET的类中放入待赋值的表达式,表达式注意不能以分号结尾。
<%= "expanded inline data " + 1 %>

JSP 动作
JSP动作是一系列可以调用内建于网络服务器中的功能的XML标签。JSP提供了以下动作:

jsp:include 和子过程类似,JAVA SERVLET暂时接管对其它指定的JSP页的请求和响应。当处理完该JSP页后就马上把控制权交还当前JSP页。这样JSP代码就可以在多个JSP页中共享而不用复制。
jsp:param 可以在jsp:include, jsp:forward 或 jsp:params块之间使用。指定一个将加入请求的当前参数组中的参数。
jsp:forward 用于处理对另一个JSP或SERVLET的请求和响应。控制权永远不会交还给当前JSP页。
jsp:plugin Netscape Navigator 的老版本和 Internet Explorer 使用不同的标签以嵌入一个applet。这个动作产生为嵌入一个APPLET所需要的指定浏览器标签。
jsp:fallback 如果浏览器不支持APPLETS则会显示的内容。
jsp:getProperty 从指定的JavaBean。
jsp:setProperty 在指定的JavaBean中设置一个属性值。
jsp:useBean 创建或者复用一个JavaBean 变量到JSP页。

(height="${param.height}", code="${chart}"等)和动态参数的新功能。 目前jsp:plugin标签不允许动态调用 applets。例如,你如果有一个图表applet需要数据点以参数形式被传入,除非数据点的数量是一个常量,否则你就不能使用ResultSet 循环来创建jsp:param标签,你不得不手写每个jsp:param标签的代码。而每个上述jsp:param标签可以有一个动态命名和动态值。

request — 该属性在请求的生命周期内有效,一旦请求被所有的JSP页处理完后,那么该属性就不可引用。
page — 该属性只是当前页中有效。
session — 该属性在用户会话的生命周期内有效。
application — 该属性在各种情况下都有效,并且永远不会被变为不可引用,和侨居变量global variable相同。
上述例子将会用一个创建一个类的实例,并且把该实例存储在属性中,该属性将在该请求的生命周期内有效。它可以在所有被包含或者从主页面(最先接收请求的页面)转向到的JSP页之间共享。

JSP标签库
除了JSP预定义动作之外,开发者还可以使用JSP标签扩展API添加他们自定义的动作。开发者写一种实现一个标签的界面和一个标签库的XML描述文件的JAVA类,这就能指定标签和实现标签的JAVA类

JSP编译器将会载入mytaglib.tld这个XML文件,然后可以看到标签myaction由JAVA类MyActionTag实现。当该标签首次在文件中使用时,将会创建一个MyActionTag的实例。然后(而且当每次该标签被使用时),当出现开始标签时,将会调用doStartTag()方法,根据开始标签的结果,来决定如何处理标签的主体。主体是指开始标签和结束标签之间的文本。这个doStartTag()方法将会返回如下之一:

SKIP_BODY - 标签之间不做处理。
EVAL_BODY_INCLUDE - 对标签之内主体进行赋值。
EVAL_BODY_TAG - 对标签之内主体进行赋值并把结果输出到流(保存在标签的主体内容属性中)。
注意: 如果标签扩展了 BodyTagSupport 类,当主体被执行时会在调用doEndTag()之前调用doAfterBody()方法。该方法用于实现循环结构。
当结束标签出现时,它会调用doEndTag()方法,该方法会返回如下两做之一:

EVAL_PAGE - 表示JSP文件的剩余部份将会被执行。this indicates that the rest of the JSP file should be processed.
SKIP_PAGE - 表示将不会再有更多执行操作。当前JSP页交出控制权。就象在转发动作中的作用一样。