According to figures as of Sept. 29 from the ASR Scorecards database, $55.96 billion in public ABS was issued year-to-date in 2011.

The adage "Where there's smoke there's usually fire" probably explains the concerns about regulators' queries into whether REITs still warrant an exclusion permitting them to use significant leverage in their business models. The issue is especially relevant since REITs are primary buyers of agency RMBS and many view them as the likeliest buyers of private-label RMBS when that market's health returns .

Among the ideas surfacing as the government works on interest rate and housing policy interventions aimed at bolstering the economy is a plan for financing bulk REO sales for renting to private investors that could be structured in a manner similar to the Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF)/Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), an approach some securities analysts said recently they are favoring.

The current outlook for September prepayment speeds is for around a 10% increase overall with CPRs on 4s through moderately seasoned 5s increasing between 30% and 50%.

The issue of whether Greece will or will not default has yet to be put to rest. However, the securitization market proved its resiliency in the face of uncertainty as it opened up primary flow last month with a small bang.

The banking craze in Mexico for state and municipal debt may be dying down, and signs point to a revival in market issuance. The closing on Sept. 23 of a Ps3 billion ($221 million) bond backed by payroll taxes from the state of Chihuahua could usher in more bond deals from sub-sovereigns.

Not too long ago, Turkey's Sekerbank was a name with no resonance in the structured finance world. Then, in mid-summer, the bank issued a covered bond deal that broke two barriers. It was the first of its kind from Turkey and the first covered bond globally to be backed by SME loans. Some covered bond purists even questioned whether SME collateral disqualified an instrument from being called a covered bond, which are overwhelmingly secured by mortgage pools. Turkish law has two separate regulations, one for covered bonds backed by mortgages and another for those secured by any of a wide range of other assets.

Three to four years removed from the time non-Agency RMBS and housing markets began to collapse, this article provides a historical performance update of the subprime loan sector for vintage years 1997 through 2008. Performance of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 vintages is far and away worse than for any other year, even prior to 2000 when subprime lending was still fairly new. In addition, the extent of negative equity in the borrower repayment pipeline for never-modified and at-least-once-modified subprime loans for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages is measured. Given the extreme and broad corrections in residential property prices since approximately mid-2006, the mortgage repayment struggles of borrowers, and the intended effects of loan-modifications, negative equity density has been pushed to the performing and early-stage delinquency end of the pipeline. That is, modifications have resulted in a larger share of performing (active and current) borrowers with significantly more negative equity than otherwise would be the case had a loan modification not occurred.

MORTGAGE DATA 30-yr. Fixed 15-yr. Fixed 5-yr Treasury 1-yr Treasury- MBA Refi Home Purchase Rate Mortgage Rate Mortgage Indexed ARMs Indexed ARMs Index Index Week ending 10/20/11 4.11%

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

2011 2010 2009 ABS (Public + 144A) 111,324.0 99,341.6 122,625.7 ABS (Public + 144A excluding CDOs) 105,082.1 97,873.6 120,954.0 ABS (Public Only) 64,675.8 46,872.8 72,301.6 ABS (144A Only) 46,648.3 52,468.8 50,324.1 Non-Agency MBS 54,165.0 24,557.8 7,598.1 Agency MBS 272,183.6 383,654.7 199,646.5 CMBS 29,152.0 18,239.3 3,698.4

Although there is a lot of talk on renewable energy, specifically solar financing, in the esoteric space, there are other assets giving the non-traditional sector life.