A sharp pick up in the issuance of CLOs this year hasn't resulted in much reshuffling in the ranks of credits held by these deals. In fact, there was no movement in the top five names between the first and second quarters.

"Industry consolidation outweighs new issuance as the key driver for shifts in the manager rankings, in the U.S. and Europe," Moody's analysts wrote in the newly released July edition of "CLO Interest," which includes CLO manager league tables as of June 30, 2012, updated for the first time since August 2011.

With the rated securitization market staging a comeback and bank financing more readily available, investors in ABS placed in the traditional private market are increasingly confined to smaller deals backed by more esoteric assets.

As the New York Federal Reserve moves closer to completing the winding down of its Maiden Lane (ML) vehicles, investors face a falloff in inventory volumes. This poses a further challenge in this yield-starved environment.

Commercial banks, still busy with the business of tidying up their portfolios and shrinking balance sheets, are slowly getting back to small business lending. However, the void created by their long absence has been increasingly filled by both smaller regional banks and nonbank lenders. It's the latter that are driving securitization because it increases their access to funding, allowing them to grow lending volumes.

The ASF recently released a white paper entitled "Discussion of a Proposed Single Agency Security" that outlines the issues to be addressed in effectively merging the securities markets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce "TBA market inefficiencies." This column will discuss the implications of unresolved issues raised by the report.

By the end of this year, RMBS issuers keen on obtaining funding from the European Central Bank, as well as those already using these securities as collateral in sale and repurchase agreements, will need to input data on the underlying mortgages into the newly created European DataWarehouse, known pithily as ED.

Scheduled to launch later this year, the European DataWarehouse will, for the first time, house loan-level data on a wide range of loans backing the region's ABS. The European Central Bank is the information repository's biggest client and champion.

Securitization market participants welcomed Deutsche Annington's July 10 announcement of German Residential Asset Note Distributor's (GRAND) proposed loan restructuring.

With interest rates low and federal housing initiatives in full force, the July prepayment report, scheduled for release in August, is expected to show an increase in speeds.

Freddie Mac is extending its streamline refinancing program to mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of 80% or less, bringing its Home Affordable Refinancing Program in line with Fannie Mae’s.

Given that the subprime auto ABS market has rebounded in the last three years, Wells Fargo believes that the new-issue volume in the sector “should easily” exceed last year’s $12.6 billion.