coverage of IMN's ABS East 2012 Conference

Fitch Ratings said today that it consolidated its investor-focused business staff in its FitchRatings unit into a global team that will be led by Debbie Hartley.

Speakers at one panel of Information Management Network’s ABS East conference think the industry will come around to this field’s potential of socially responsible investing.

Nearly a half decade after the start of the mortgage crisis, portions of borrower vetting for securitized mortgages are still being done primarily by loan originators. This causes a potential risk management gap, particularly for non-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed mortgages that are bundled and sold as mortgage-backed securities.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced that Oaktree Capital Management was the winning bidder for commercial real estate loans of the failed bank, Tennessee Commerce Bank .

Regulators are moving forward with proposals to apply the corporate bond transparency system known as TRACE (Transaction Reporting And Compliance Engine) to the entire MBS and ABS markets,according to Saber Partners.

Credit card securitizations almost exclusively consist of receivables of well-seasoned, high-quality cardholder accounts that have performed well despite persistently high unemployment, according to a Moody's Investors Service report published today.

Santander Consumer Bank pre-placed its Svensk Autofinans 1— the first Swedish securitization of 2012.

The European Central Bank published details of its latest extension to collateral eligibility requirements, which will allow U.S dollar, U.K. sterling and Japanese yen collateral to be used in its monetary operations.

The subordinated B-piece market has absorbed $1.6 billion in supply year-to-date, surpassing 2011's $1.5bn figure, according to Standard &Poor's.

The Royal Bank of Scotland said in a report today that the Spanish financial entity established to take over risky loans, but not RMBS, will begin operations on Nov. 19, under the name of Sareb.

Moody's Investors Service said today that it will rate the senior swap and the class A+ Notes totalling $943million equivalent, issued by the German state sponsored bank, KfW under the Promise Neo 2012- 1 transaction.