Asset Securitization Report articles from May 2008

Asset Securitization Report archives from May 2008

Whispers.
May 5, 2008... Tom Wickwire, global head of structured products and head of the principal financing group at Wachovia Securities, will be leaving the firm within two weeks. Wickwire's responsibilities will be taken up by several individuals but primarily by...

As One Market Tightens, Another Widens.
May 5, 2008... Spread tightening continues in the European ABS secondary market. Dutch paper has come in the most, followed by Italian. At present, Dutch triple-A RMBS with a five-year average life trades at 75 to 80 basis points, while better-quality...

Credit Cards and Autos on Issuance Agenda: But legislative proposals keep the market guessing, too.
May 5, 2008... Major legislative and regulatory propasals came forward last week, which hint at potentially big changes for the student loan and credit card industries. But that did not do enough to significantly perk up spirits on ABS trading desks,...

Merrill's Top Guns Take Flight.
May 5, 2008... Six months after several of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s top fixed-income executives were ousted from their jobs, another round of shakeouts is underway, which involve many of the bank's senior executives in fixed income. Sources familiar with...

April a Big Month for Timeshares.(Brief article)
May 5, 2008... The timeshare sector is making a few waves in the securitization sector this month. Over the course of a week, three deals came to market, two of which priced at press time. The Silverleaf Finance VI, a $149 million transaction from issuer...

Fitch Rolls Out New CDO Criteria.
May 5, 2008... Responding to investor gripes about lack of transparency and ratings instability for CDO transactions, Fitch Ratings unveiled new global rating criteria for corporate CDOs last week. This marks a major step for the rating agency in...

MJX Closes Single Tranch Refi CLO.
May 5, 2008... MJX Asset Management last week closed Veer Cash Flow CLO, a newly restructured incarnation of a market value transaction, Veer Loan Opportunities Fund. As part of the restructuring, MJX purchased the entire $15 million mezzanine tranche...

Fed Chimes in on Card Policies.
May 5, 2008... A major clash of ideals is brewing in Washington, D.C. as lawmakers and regulators last week introduced policies that would change the way credit card portfolios are managed. Industry analysts warned that the changes could have profoundly...

Markit to Launch Muni CDS Index.
May 5, 2008... The municipal CDS market has come into sharp focus in the past year with monoline troubles, spread widening, and the general negative economic outlook calling attention to credit risk. This is despite historically low default rates,...

April Remits Show Signs of Future Collateral Weakness.
May 5, 2008... April remittance reports released last week reflected a continued dip in the 30- and 60-day delinquency buckets in most trusts across all the indices, Barclays Capital analysts reported. According to Barclays, the 30 to 59-day delinquency...

Unsightly Revelations: What Could FASB's Credit Derivative Proposals Portend?
May 5, 2008... In a hurried effort to shine light on the credit derivatives market - viewed as potentially the next domino to fall in the credit-market crisis - a new project by accounting standard setters could require firms to disclose more details about...

Quiet Start for MBS as Players Wait for FOMC: Mortgage volume picked up after Fed announcement on Wednesday afternoon.
May 5, 2008... Ahead of Wednesday's statement from the Federal Open Market Committee, mortgage volume was substantially below normal as many participants held close to the sidelines. The overall tone of the sector, however, was supportive though generally...

Brazil Banks Issue Over $500M in DPR Deals: Volatile market conditions lure Brazilian banks back to structured finance.
May 5, 2008... Tougher financing conditions, coupled with doubts over the return of looser credit, are drawing the leading Brazilian banks back to structured finance. Over the past couple of weeks, Banco do Brasil (BdB), Unibanco and Banco Santander's...

Whispers.
May 12, 2008... Brian Clarkson, president and chief operating officer of Moody's Investors Service, has decided to retire at the end of July, according to a memo from the rating agency. He will be stepping down in order to make way for new management to lead...

How Will GMAC Deal with This Squeeze?
May 12, 2008... GMAC has had to put up with a lot of headaches lately, thanks to its residential real estate finance unit, Residential Capital. Last week, the mortgage lender was hard at work on a $14 billion debt restructuring to stave off bankruptcy....

BlackRock Deal Brings a Spring Back to ABS: Cards and autos dominate trading as good news livens up players' mood.
May 12, 2008... The ABS market was in better spirits last week, thanks to BlackRock's announcement that it will purchase $15 billion of subprime mortgage debt from UBS. BlackRock's plans to purchase the debt at a 25% discount from its face value of $20...

Markit Looks to Increase ABX Liquidity with Sub-Index.
May 12, 2008... As the market looks for alternative investment opportunities and new ways to hedge risk, global index operator Markit has taken note. The company has launched a slew of new products recently, including the MCDX, a muni bond CDS index, which...

ResCap Bondholders See Few Options.(Residential Capital Management L.L.C.)
May 12, 2008... As part of an ambitious plan to delay debt maturities and stay in business for another couple of years, Residential Capital (ResCap), the troubled real estate unit of GMAC, has offered to redeem $14 billion in bonds for as little as 77 cents on...

Wintrust Sells Premium Finance.
May 12, 2008... Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., has weathered the real estate downturn in part by specializing in the business of financing insurance premiums, and now it wants to free up capital for more traditional lending by securitizing...

ABCP Makes the Grade for Bank of Canada.
May 12, 2008... With ABCP markets disrupted since last summer, the Bank of Canada began soliciting feedback in early March on its proposed eligibility criteria for accepting ABCP as collateral for borrowings under its Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF). The...

A Rock and a Hard Place for Mortgage Insurers.
May 12, 2008... If there has ever been a time to make a campaign for mortgage insurance, current market conditions dictate that the time is now. With the crackdown in underwriting standards, insurance is the only method to secure a mortgage without putting...

Tightening in Senior Loan Officer Survey.
May 12, 2008... The Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Lending Practices released last week noted that lending standards have tightened further in the past three months. "The net fractions of domestic banks reporting tighter lending...

Supportive Tone Continues For Mortgage-backeds.
May 12, 2008... Through midweek, MBS volume was running close to average in mostly supportive flows. Monday started off rather quiet with mortgages weakening on profit taking, following its recent strong gains. Contributing to the silence were various...

Mexico's Credito Inmobiliario Forges Ahead: Despite the possibility of risk in the sector, Credito comes to market with a bridge loan deal.
May 12, 2008... This week, Mexico's Credito Inmobiliario is likely to become the first originator to collateralize a pool of construction bridge loans since before Fitch Ratings reported on heightened risk in the sector and Moody's de Mexico put...

Irish Mortgages Remains on Solid Ground Despite Market Turmoil.
May 12, 2008... At first blush, mortgage delinquencies in Ireland appear higher than almost anywhere in Europe. But the data can be deceptive if it includes the Irish "specialist" market, since the rest of Europe is limited mainly to prime lending. "You...

GSEs Come To Market's Rescue.(government sponsored enterprises)
May 12, 2008... The U.S. government has recently been aggressively pursuing measures to help the beleaguered housing market. One measure that has been getting a lot of attention would allow Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to purchase mortgages greater...

Whispers.
May 19, 2008... Sources said that Michael Blum, who was the global head of Merrill's ABS business, has left the bank. Exact details of his departure were not available as of press time. Blum's leaving is in keeping with recent departures from the firm....

Ukraine Takes Baby Steps, Mexico Wobbles.
May 19, 2008... A Ukrainian bank has launched its - and the country's - second existing asset deal. Regardless of whether lead arranger UBS will hit up institutional investors or underwrite until sunnier times bring tighter market pricing, the transaction will...

ABS Market Continues Positive Momentum: Old players come back to market as the FHA initiative finds its way in Congress.(Federal Housing Administration)(asset backed securities)
May 19, 2008... The ABS market continued to see sunny skies last week, as the Senate Banking Committee was close to approving a bill that would set up a $300 million Federal Housing Administration loan guarantee program, and appoint a regulator that would...

JAC Delivers Principles on Structured Products.
May 19, 2008... Last week, JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said that the credit crunch was nearing an end. Credit card and auto securitization deals are seeing spreads begin to tighten and CLOs are continuing to make their way down the...

Insurers' Exposure to Second-Liens Could Be Problematic.
May 19, 2008... Moody's Investors Service last Tuesday said the ratings for the bond insurers could be significantly affected by their exposure to second-lien RMBS losses, which are higher than the rating agency expected. "This could have material...

Canadian ABCP Becomes Smaller, but More Transparent.
May 19, 2008... Last week Judge Colin Campbell, who is overseeing the $32 billion restructuring plan for Canada's nonbank ABCP, said that he will decide quickly on whether he will approve the plan or not. This is a ray of hope for a market that has been frozen...

Babson Sails Through Rocky CLO Market.
May 19, 2008... Babson Capital Management is currently marketing its fourth CLO-related transaction since the beginning of the year, adding to the 50 plus CDOs it currently oversees. But some investors are wondering where the commitments are coming from, given...

Moody's Makes Steps Toward Ratings Clarity: Moody's adds to ratings methodology but investors suggest that the new criteria may not do much for transparency.
May 19, 2008... It appears that rating agencies have listened and learned from investor gripes about the ratings process's opacity. Two weeks ago, Fitch Ratings unveiled a new methodology for rating corporate CDOs. Last week, Moody's Investors Service...

Recent Mortgage Cheapening Attracts Interest in MBS.
May 19, 2008... Last week started off with MBS lagging as the slight gains in Treasurys and the lack of data provided an excuse for investors to continue to take profits after the strong gains made in April and into mid-May. Through midweek, mortgage...

European Market Sees New CLO Activity: Arbitrage deals make a comeback in a market where price discovery is still an issue.
May 19, 2008... Two new CLO deals were marketed in Europe last week, and one deal closed on the public market. However, market sources said that the activity of the past weeks still doesn't offer a definitive direction as to where pricing will settle. The...

Market Digests Increasing Number of Insurance-Linked Deals.
May 19, 2008... In the current market, making the case for any asset class would be hard. However, the appetite for insurance-linked deals is growing and the market could see a volume increase over the next year, analysts said. To be certain, the potential for...

Repos Keep RMBS Afloat in Europe.
May 19, 2008... While private securitization markets in Europe have virtually shriveled up, banks and other issuers can still turn to a rich uncle: central banks will accept their RMBS paper as collateral for repo financing. Although the European Central...

Turkish Banks Play Coy with ABS.
May 19, 2008... With the field of active bond insurers having thinned out and credit spreads still blown out, leading Turkish banks have yet to revive their structured finance programs. But they have the luxury of waiting, as the likes of Akbank,...

Whispers.
May 26, 2008... Michael O'Grady will be taking over as head of structured finance and investments in the Americas at Merrill Lynch. O'Grady is replacing Michael Blum, who left Merrill recently and was formerly the global head of the bank's ABS business. Blum...

Distressed Buyers Start Eyeing European Loans: It's hard to believe that the market is reprocessing the very instruments that started the current credit crisis.
May 26, 2008... European funds have started raising money to buy deeply discounted collateral. Some smaller finance houses have even started to invest in mortgage servicing groups that deal with distressed paper. Market players say it's an encouraging sign...

Auto Deals Drive Investor Optimism: While last week started off slow, auto deals shifted issuance into high gear.
May 26, 2008... Spirits were high in the ABS market last week, as banks continued to receive funding by way of the Federal Reserve's Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), market participants said. Banks have also recapitalized with a "surprising...

Challenges for Newer CDO Shops.
May 26, 2008... Trouble at Calyon's structured finance subsidiary Omicron Investment Management could serve as a harbinger for the further woes awaiting CDO managers. The unprecedented deterioration of the structured credit markets has made it more...

ASR Roundtable - Covered Bonds: Shelter from the Storm?(Discussion)
May 26, 2008... With the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) release of a covered bond policy statement and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's public support for the creation of a U.S. market for these traditionally European securities, AsR brought...

Week Begins with Quiet Flows for Mortgages: Scant mortgage-backed volume seen because of the upcoming Memorial Day.
May 26, 2008... Volume was substantially lower in the first couple days of trading last week. One factor contributing to the scant numbers was the limited data throughout the week that concluded with a half day last Friday and was followed by the long Memorial...

CMBS Issuance Drops Despite Sector Optimism.
May 26, 2008... While the RMBS market remains down and most definitely out, CMBS has struggled to set itself apart as the "safer" mortgage investment. But, credit fundamentals aside, any type of mortgage remains a dirty word for all market participants,...

BoE Liquidity Scheme to Gain Momentum: European market players throw their support behind the BoE's special liquidity facility.
May 26, 2008... The Bank of England (BoE) reiterated last week that it had no cap on the size of its special liquidity scheme, but said that it will not speculate on how much lending there will be. The new special liquidity scheme was introduced at the...

RMBS Arrears Build on Soaring Rates.
May 26, 2008... Conservative lending practices might be easing banks back into shape, but on the borrowing end, the scenario continues to get messier. Without a correction in interest rates, U.K. borrower affordability will continue to be pinched as...

Brazil's BMC Launches $600m Loan ABS.
May 26, 2008... A mega-deal collateralizing deduc-tible personal loans has been filed with Brazilian regulators, giving a jolt to a market that had slowed since a banner 2006. Senior shares in the receivable investment fund (FIDC) total R$1 billion ($603...

Clarification:.(Correction notice)
May 26, 2008... In "Babson Sails Through Rocky CLO Market" from ASR's 5/19 issue, it should have stated that Morgan Stanley was the correct underwriter in the Babson CLO 2008-1. (c) 2008 Asset Securitization Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights...