Asset Securitization Report articles from February 2009

Asset Securitization Report archives from February 2009

Whispers.(Whispers)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Bank of America has reportedly let go Charles Bingham, head of loan syndications for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as it works towards its goal of reducing its head count by 35,000 following its acquisition of...

Fitch: LatAm Takes It on the Chin.(Global Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa The Latin American storyline shifted last year as the gangrenous financial crisis spread from the countries where it sprang forth to the periphery. For the first half of the year, talk in the region was of resilience...

ECB Changes May Begin to Limit Repo Restructuring.(Global Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer The European Central Bank (ECB) published adjustments of risk control measures for newly issued ABS. The ECB intends to limit repo collateral to triple-A rated bonds and will no longer accept collateral that is...

More Trouble for Belgium's KBC Bank.(Global Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer Shares for troubled Belgian bank KBC suffered heavy losses this month amid concerns about the bank's exposure to fragile emerging markets as well as its need to raise fresh capital. At the beginning of this year,...

TALF The Boost the ABS Market Needs?(Cover Story)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan The ABS market remained quiet last week as participants were still waiting for further details about the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). Experts have mixed opinions regarding...

The Government's Role In Mortgage Lending.(Column)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Bill Berliner The mortgage market has begun the long and arduous process of crawling from the wreckage of the last two years. While the government has been involved in mortgage lending since the 1930s, recent recovery efforts have...

Floorplan ABS Faces Uncertain Roads Ahead.(ABS Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Gabrielle Stein Despite staving off an immediate failure of one of the Detroit Big Three auto dealers with $17.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), doubt remains over these firms' long-term viability. ...

CLO Managers Face Mounting Troubles.(ABS Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Richard Kellerhals For CLO managers, watching the declining performance of their underlying collateral has been about as much fun as a Tijuana jail. And it doesn't look like they'll make bail anytime soon. A number of issues...

ASF 2009 Zeroes in on Govt. Policy.(ABS Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan Despite the current tumult in the securitization market, the American Securitization Forum's (ASF) upcoming yearly gathering is set to be well-attended. As of ASR's deadline last Thursday, total registration was...

FHLB Capital Redefined.(ABS Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Steven Sloan, American Banker Capital rules applying to the Federal Home Loan Banks will be divided into four classifications under an interim final rule the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued Tuesday. The proposal...

MBS Players Wait for FOMC Statement.(MBS Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Sally A. Runyan, Thomson Reuters Early-week volume into Wednesday was modestly below normal. This was because the Chinese New Year celebrations kept overseas investors quiet and the market waited for the Federal Open Market...

Northern Rock To Reopen Its Books to the Market.(Global Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer The U.K. government has changed its direction for nationalized Northern Rock's portfolio. It initially intended to shrink the lender's balance sheet, but under the several schemes for further financial intervention...

Moody's Sees Sputtering in '09 EM.(GlobalL Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa Moody's Investors Service predicts that structured finance activity in the new markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will be hampered for some time. "A full recovery to pre-crisis issuance volumes in...

Kazakh Bank Takeover: The DPR Angle; There's a more immmediate question: can these takeovers trip deal triggers?(Column)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa As in much of the developed world, Kazakhstan has determined that the global crisis has left it with few choices. A string of moves to shore up troubled banks since last fall hit a crescendo last week when the...

Obama's Programs Slated to Boost SF Deal Flow.(ABS Report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Gabrielle Stein President Barack Obama has been in office for less than a month. But already, there are a slew of new programs on the table slated to boost lending in the structured finance market and jumpstart new deal flow. ...

Middle-Market Securitizations: Trends and Outlook for 2009.(ABS Report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: John Timperio, partner, and Mary Bear, associate, Dechert LLP "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." -Lily Tomlin. So went the year 2008 in the middle-market (MM) CLO space: each time prognosticators...

Can U.S. Credit Card ABS Withstand Recession?(ABS Report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Mike Dean, managing director and Cynthia Ullrich, senior director, Fitch Ratings' U.S. consumer ABS group With consumers under increasing stress, credit card ABS performance has weakened. In anticipation of a prolonged stressed...

Covered Bonds - Will Insurance Companies Follow Banks?(ABS Report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Chiahua Pan, partner, Morrison & Foerster Covered bonds, a time-tested technique for capital-raising, have been utilized by credit institutions in Germany for over two centuries. The instruments also have been popular in a...

Call Option a No Go for Dutch RMBS.(Global Report)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer Nearly 70% of existing Dutch RMBS deals include early call options. However, only deals that include a call date in 2012 from larger securitization originators are likely to be called through, according to Societe...

Crisis Smothers Spark in Gulf ABS.(Global Report)(asset backed securities)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa For the countries of the Gulf, the ABS party's over before it ever got started. Fitch Ratings recently released a brief commentary on how eroding property markets in the region are putting deals in harm's way. But...

Data Analysis Eases Loan Mod Process.(Roundtable)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Loan modifications are becoming increasingly common because of the declining housing environment. Although it still remains uncertain how these modifications will play out, ABS players, specifically investors, need...

Whispers.(Whispers)(briefs)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Chapman and Cutler hired Kenneth Marin to be part of its recently opened New York City office. Marin is a partner in the firm's asset securitization practice. Marin has represented issuers, underwriters, investors...

Is the European Market Closer to Fine?(Column)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer For three weeks now, better sentiment has prevailed in European ABS secondary market trading, where spread widening has stopped and triple-A spreads have tightened at a rapid pace. However, despite these positives,...

Much Ado About TALF at ASF 2009; After Geithner's speech, conference attendees couldn't stop talking about the newly expanded TALF.(ASF Coverage)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's announcement of his Financial Stability Plan created a buzz at last week's American Securitization Forum conference - ASF 2009 - held in Las Vegas. Although conference...

ASF Participants Discuss Ways Out of the Crisis.(ASF Coverage)(American Securitization Forum )
February 16, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan With the securitization markets currently broken, market participants are trying to find their way through the crisis and pick up the pieces. This was evident in last week's American Securitization Forum (ASF)...

Average MBS Volume as Washington Drama Unfolds; Lack of details around the Financial Stability Plan spurs flight-to-quality trades.(MBS Report)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Sally A. Runyan, Thomson Reuters MBS volume was average into midweek with hearings in Washington, the announcement of a new financial aid plan, a Senate Stimulus Bill vote and the American Securitization Forum conference held in Las...

Russian Deals Want TLC But Get T&C.(Global Report)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa Fitch Ratings' recent moves on a handful of Russian ABS and MBS - most of which were decidedly negative - have raised the spotlight on Transfer & Convertibility (T&C) risk in the country. The agency downgraded the...

Mexican RMBS Hangover Stretches into '09.(Global Report)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa By any measure, RMBS issuance slowed dramatically in Mexico in 2008. In a recent report, Moody's Investors Service estimated volumes hit Ps35.4 billion ($2.4 billion) in 2008, from Ps30.0 billion the previous year....

Moody's: Overall LatAm Issuance To Slip.(Global Report)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Felipe Ossa Moody's Investors Service predicts in a report that overall issuance in Latin America will slip this year from the $19.5 billion the agency estimated for 2008. Propped by growth in the region's domestic market, last...

Euro ABCP Issuers Fund Through U.S. Programs.(Cover Story)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer Without a home on the domestic side, European commercial paper (ECP) investors have increasingly found shelter in the U.S. The U.S. was able to support the European short-term market throughout the economic crisis...

Whispers.(Whispers)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Morgan Stanley's head of European leveraged credit trading has resigned. Robert Lepone, who oversaw various teams, including high yield bonds, leveraged loans, credit default swaps and distressed debt, left Morgan...

ESF Releases RMBS Transparency Principles.(Global Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Nora Colomer The European Securitization Forum (ESF) released the RMBS Issuer Principles for Transparency and Disclosure last week. This set of voluntary guidelines for issuers of European RMBS is an integral part of the...

Second Time a Charm? Govt./Private Sector Join Forces for Another Distressed Asset Cleanup.(Cover Story)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Gabrielle Stein Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's announcement of the revamped Financial Stability Plan proved to be a showstopper during the American Securitization Forum's (ASF) annual industry conference held earlier this...

Correction.(Correction notice)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff An article on Latin America's 2008 issuance published in the 2/2/09 issue of ASR misidentified the lead bank for Brazil Foreign DPR Finance Co. 2008-2. The arranger was Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

Some Credit for Geithner.(Column)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Bill Berliner Financial markets received the Department of the Treasury's latest bank-rescue plan with a resounding thud. The stock market's swoon was generally attributed to the lack of detail in the Financial Stability Plan,...

CLO Managers Push for Amendments.(ABS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Richard Kellerhals On Feb. 4, Moody's Investors Service revised the methodology it uses to rate CLOs, spurring a rash of CLO downgrades that has yet to end. As a result, CLO managers have begun requesting amendments to their...

SecondMarket Opens Up Trading for CDOs and MBS.(ABS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan With the onslaught of illiquid assets - particularly displaced MBS and CDO bonds - the development of a market for these securities becomes essential as well as useful not only for the companies that profit from them,...

Fitch Releases Loss Severity Scale.(ABS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Karen Sibayan Fitch Ratings released its criteria for its structured finance loss severity (LS) rating scale last week. The rating agency said that the new scale was established to complement the existing Long-Term Credit (LTC)...

MBIA Spins Off Public Finance Only Insurer.(ABS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff, The Bond Buyer Following through on a transformation plan announced last year, MBIA last week said it has restructured its insurance subsidiaries to form a new U.S. public finance-only insurer that will operate...

Vague Housing Plan Incites Doubt; MBS market has knee-jerk reaction to President Obama's housing announcement.(MBS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Sally A. Runyan, Thomson Reuters Mortgage spreads firmed up on Wednesday as Treasurys sold off prompted by another round of supply worries. These market jitters resulted from the vague details of President Barack Obama's housing...

President's Housing Plan Comes Amid Negative Housing Reports.(MBS Report)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Sally A. Runyan, Thomson Reuters and Karen Sibayan There are both positive and negative aspects to President Barack Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP) announced on Wednesday last week. On balance, "the...