Asset Securitization Report articles from December 2007

Asset Securitization Report archives from December 2007

Whispers.
December 3, 2007... Fieldstone Mortgage filed for Chapter 11 last week, shortly after announcing that it would stop accepting loan applications and funding mortgage loans. According to court documents, the company has liabilities of more than $100 million, with...

Clarification:.(Correction notice)
December 3, 2007... Standard & Poor's financial strength rating outlook for CIFG was misstated last week. The company's outlook was revised to negative from stable on June 7, 2007, as a result of CIFG's corporate governance policies and procedures, its succession...

Notwithstanding Citi, Holiday Break Lingers: Cash-flow CDO, credit card deals help break up slow ABS week.
December 3, 2007... ABS market professionals are still dealing with a sluggish issuance calendar, and with four weeks remaining in 2007, they do not expect to unwrap the gift of recovery anytime soon. Between Nov. 19 and press time Nov. 28, around $9.7 billion of...

Calyon Launches First CCO Deal.
December 3, 2007... Calyon is arranging its first CDO backed by commodity trigger swaps - or a collateralized commodities obligation (CCO) - set to close by the end of the month. The transaction, Amadeus 2007-1, references 10 commodities, including base metals,...

CRE CDOs See Comeback On Different Terms.
December 3, 2007... While A-Rod was unanimously expected to re-sign with the Yankees, panelists at IMN's Real Estate Mezzanine Loan Forum in New York last week were not as certain about the future of the CRE CDO market. A group of panelists made up of CRE CDO...

November Remits: Could Be Worse.(asset backed securities index)
December 3, 2007... November remittance data ushered in more bad news this month, but the results were surprisingly milder than October. The monthly change in 30- and 60-day delinquencies, "after surging at the fastest pace ever" last month returned to their...

Monolines Mull Reinsurance Capital.
December 3, 2007... The two largest triple-A bond insurers might look to reinsure their "very reinsurable" portfolio of asset-backed securities and municipal bonds if the rating agencies tell them to raise more capital, executives from Ambac Financial Group and...

HSBC's SIV Solution Good for the Market?
December 3, 2007... Faced with no viable outside near-term options to shore up its structured investment vehicle (SIV) programs, HSBC decided to come up with a plan of its own. Last week, the bank announced that it will take the assets of its two SIVs, Cullinan...

Euro Deals Sparse Until 2008.
December 3, 2007... There may be three weeks remaining in the asset backed securities production year, but traders and analyst say any serious action will remain under wraps until 2008. "There are some new deals entering the pipeline, and although deals also...

Barclays Capital Survey Reveals ABS Investors Expect Growth Dip.(Barclays Capital Inc.)(asset backed securities)
December 3, 2007... Barclays Capital's largest Europe-based ABS investor clients can expect their ABS portfolios to grow at a weighted average of 10% for the next 12 months, according to the bank's third annual European ABS investor survey. That represents a...

SAI Aims to See Forest for Trees.
December 3, 2007... A few Mexican players have locked their sights on a virgin patch of ABS terrain, and, if they have their way, it'll be covered in trees within a few years. Structurer SAI Consultores has teamed up with placement agent Credit Suisse in a deal...

ABN Closes Facility for Kazakh's BTA.
December 3, 2007... Bucking the furtive approach of its rivals, ABN AMRO went public last week with a mortgage warehousing facility in Kazakhstan. The global bank recently closed a $200 million deal with client BTA Ipoteka, the originating unit of Bank TuranAlem....

MBS in Active Two-Way Flows.
December 3, 2007... The market got right down to business as participants returned from their long Thanksgiving breaks. In the first two and a half days of trading, Treasurys were whipped sharply higher on a strong flight to quality and then retraced most of that...

Back to Basics: Mortgage Bankings' Conservative Mood.
December 3, 2007... Having absorbed heavy criticism for loosened underwriting standards and aggressive lending practices that helped trigger the subprime market collapse, the mortgage banking industry appears poised to move forward by embracing its more...

Whispers.
December 10, 2007... Michael Strange left the financial institution securitization group at Barclays Capital to take up a position at Goldman Sachs, according to sources familiar with the matter. A Goldman rep declined to comment. At press time, it was unclear when...

Market Shutdown Looms, Not Just for Holidays: Bear Stearns queues up MBS deals, but autos and SLABS actually price.
December 10, 2007... Just about three weeks remain on the ABS issuance calendar of 2007, but as every market professional knows, issuers and investors began their winter slumber a long time ago. Washington Mutual is considering pulling the plug on its mortgage...

WaMu Said to be Shuttering MBS.
December 10, 2007... Washington Mutual, which is under pressure from the New York Attorney General's office over suspected fraudulent appraisal practices at a former vendor, is apparently making big changes to its secondary mortgage market business, and might pull...

Private SLABS Under Rating Review.
December 10, 2007... It is well known that the private loan market is seeing near-explosive growth. Now, the riskier side of such growth is coming to light, as Moody's Investors Service placed the rating of more than 16 notes in about a dozen student loan...

Mintz Levin Dedicates Group to Subprime Troubles.(Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.)
December 10, 2007... The increasing number of government investigations into subprime lending, and continued losses on these loans have prompted a substantial amount of litigation. Taking notice of the growing need for representation within the sector is...

Thacher Proffitt to Cut Staff.
December 10, 2007... As a result of declining issuance in the real estate and structured finance markets, Thacher Proffitt & Wood has joined the ranks of a number of other law firms, banks and asset management firms that have laid off staff in these departments....

Delinquencies Increase in MBA Survey.(Mortgage Bankers Association)
December 10, 2007... The Mortgage Bankers Association released its quarterly National Delinquency Survey for the third quarter last week. The survey reflected a dim outlook for the housing and subprime sectors for 2008. Total delinquencies on a seasonally adjusted...

Limited Recovery For Scratch And Dent Collateral.
December 10, 2007... Reflecting the state of the whole U.S. mortgage market, scratch and dent loans are feeling the pressure of the lack of new issuance and dips in pricing. And with continued subprime deterioration, a pickup in the sector is not likely, market...

Euro CMBS Hopes Revive with Windermere: Curious investors do independent research, though recession fears linger.
December 10, 2007... As a sign that the European CMBS market might be coming back to life, Lehman Brothers priced its Windermere XIV, the first CMBS deal seen in Europe in nearly five months. Investor reaction to the deal could be indicative of renewed interest in...

December Kicks Off with a Bit of Activity.
December 10, 2007... Last week saw a trickle of activity for publicly placed primary deals, although most deal flow continued to be driven by retained or pre-placed transactions. The good news is that market players remain optimistic that some appetite will...

Panterra's ABCP Roar is Snuffed.
December 10, 2007... Panterra Funding, an ABCP with a good deal of exposure to emerging markets, has ceased issuance and repaid all its paper as of the end of November, Moody's Investors Service said in a brief statement. Moody's had rated it Prime-1', and...

Moody's Clarifies Concepts on EMEA RMBS Redemption Rates.
December 10, 2007... In an attempt to standardize RMBS data across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Moody's Investors Service said it is looking to hedge through the inconsistencies in redemption rate reporting. The move was made to shed more light on...

Lower Yields Bring in Convexity Buying: Sharp rally and invester jitters characterize MBS market in December.
December 10, 2007... December started off with a sharp rally on Monday as investor anxiety picked up over the state of the subprime and credit markets, as well as the growing odds of a 50-basis-point cut in the funds rate. The jitters were brought on in part by a...

Freddie Mac Shores Up Capital but Still Faces Hurdles.
December 10, 2007... While Freddie Mac's recent infusion of capital brought a wave of calm after its tumultuous third-quarter losses, analysts remain concerned about the overall financial health of the nation's second-largest buyer and guarantor of home loans. ...

Bush's Loan Mod Plan Could Have Limited Impact.
December 10, 2007... The Bush administration's plan to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosures through a broad loan modification strategy has been met with mixed reactions, and could raise the threat of investor lawsuits. The plan, announced on Thursday,...

Is Buy-to-Let a Pending European Crisis?
December 10, 2007... The U.K. has seen buy-to-let (BTL) loans flourish in recent years. This product has become a popular and profitable investment with the residential housing boom. However, new entrants to the sector are caught in a confluence of rising...

Whispers.
December 17, 2007... Michael Kanef has moved internally within Moody's Investors Service. Kanef, who was formerly group managing director in ABS, is now the chief regulatory and compliance officer at Moody's. He replaces Jeanne Dering who is retiring. There is no...

U.K. RMBS Sector Loses Rate Race.
December 17, 2007... The Bank of England lowered base rates by 25 basis points last week in what is expected to be the first in a series of rate adjustments over the coming months. But as the U.K. market scrambles to contain housing sector woes, the base rate...

ABS Limps Toward 07 Finish Line: It's no tarradiddle: Citigroup launches a new ABCP conduit, while Knightsbridge CLO prices.
December 17, 2007... Choosy and cautious investors put the brakes on the ABS production market last week by tightening their purse strings. Without their money on the table, sell-side sources doubted that anything would be done at all before year end. "Judging...

ABS Enhances Airport Finance.
December 17, 2007... The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and officials at LAX Airport, are being courted to implement a patented airport finance method that securitizes the lease payments that airlines make to the airports in order to use their terminal...

No Case for Conflicts of Interest.
December 17, 2007... Selling subprime-related securities while shorting them is a common practice in the ABS market. However, some argue that the strategy might be grounds for lawsuits. While legal action might be in the works, the argument seems not strong...

Small Deal, Big Step for Northwest.
December 17, 2007... Several months after emerging from bankruptcy and several years after its last ABS deal, Northwest Airlines got into the securitization game again - albeit indirectly. The airline sold passenger ticket and cargo receivables to Finacity...

Does Paulson's Loan Mod Plan Create A Moral Hazard?
December 17, 2007... While the Bush Administration's plan to freeze interest rates on subprime ARMs generated talk of potential investor litigation, its expected limited impact could eliminate the possibility of a moral hazard, sources say. It is too early, of...

Industry Calls For Transparency.(American Securitization Forum)(need for greater transparency)
December 17, 2007... At a forum hosted by the American Securitization Forum last Wednesday in New York, ABS participants willingly shared the blame for current market problems, and admitted that a lot of the old ways of doing business, including relying so heavily...

Rhythm Returns to ABX.06-1: Is better performance ahead?
December 17, 2007... As the bulk of loans underlying the ABX.06-1 index approach their reset, market participants now say the performance of these mortgages could start 2008 off on a better footing than previously expected. They cited the better quality of the...

Decent Mortgage Flows Defy FOMC Results: Mortgage volume stayed decent even as the market waited for the Fed's announcement.(Federal Open Market Committee)
December 17, 2007... Mortgages saw decent volume in the first half of last week as the Federal Reserve dominated the market's attention. Flows Monday were mixed with heavy selling in the morning. This moved spreads substantially wider, which then drew in buyers in...

More SIV Restructuring Solutions Surface: Program sponsors become more proactive in the run-up to M-LEC.
December 17, 2007... Individual restructurings continue across the SIV sector as sponsors take a more proactive stance in the run-up to M-LEC. Last week, Rabobank and Societe Generale announced proposals that would help their respective vehicles avoid enforcement....

Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel for the Euro Bank Crisis?
December 17, 2007... For the last few months, many difficulties have beset European banks, with the latest hardship being write-downs announced by several of these firms. Despite these problems, financial institutions are still performing relatively well, even in...

Argentine Issuance Over Several Months Defies Rate Gravity.
December 17, 2007... Argentine issuance rose in the last few months, not in the least bit scraped by a spike in interest rates. Yet the future isn't as bright, with tighter regulatory scrutiny of consumer ABS (see story below) and poor diversity away from that...

Argentine Regulators Change Rules.
December 17, 2007... Argentine regulators have imposed a new rule on tranche issuance that could broaden the investor base for ABS while it simultaneously cools activity. Additional proposed changes might have a more chilling effect. Leery of the popular...

Euro Market Set for a Not-So-Happy Year.
December 17, 2007... Job losses and smaller bonuses, coupled with a sluggish European primary pipeline, paint a grim outlook for the start of the year. However, players are still hopeful that once the market restarts, it will be back to business as usual. At...

MBIA's Cash Infusion.
December 17, 2007... MBIA's shares traded higher last week on the announcement of Warburg Pincus' infusion of up to $1 billion of additional capital into the monoline insurer. MBIA sought the new capital to maintain its triple-A rating and to cushion loss...