The recently announced merger of American Airlines and US Airways may create new risk for credit card securitizations tied to the airlines brand, according to two reports published this month by Moody’s Investor Service and Standard & Poor’s.

Newtek closed on $20.9 million of securities backed by small business loans; Guggenheim placed this issue with four institutional investors.

Only vulnerable super-senior classes in CMBS are exposed to the risk of interest shortfalls that affected the super senior class of Morgan Stanley Capital I, 2007-HQ13, according to Fitch Ratings.

Brean Capital today announced John Caladim and Jon Coleman as the latest additions to the Fixed Income team.

Fitch Ratings announced on Wednesday that the $190mn StratReal Industrial Portfolio I in BACM 2007-1 entered special servicing after struggling with weak underlying performance for two years.

The performance of securities backed by both prime and subprime U.S. auto loans improved in January, according to Fitch Ratings.

U.K. prime RMBS investors may see loss severities decrease in U.K. RMBS deals as house prices stabilize on the back of a new housing initiative announced yesterday, according to a Barclays report.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency said it’s been green-lighted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to operate in the European Union.

EverBank’s planned $308 million residential mortgage-backed securitization may offer investors access to a new issuer name; but the structuring stays in line with safe, prime quality deals that have dominates post financial-crisis market issuance.

Volvo priced $622 million of notes backed by transportation equipment loans and leases according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Barclays is preparing a $1 billion whole business securitization for CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, according to a person familiar with the situation.