In selling its Walmart credit card portfolio to Capital One and extending a partnership with Sam’s Club that appeared to be in peril, Synchrony Financial avoids an expensive legal battle with the world’s largest retailer.

TD Bank joins RBC and Bank of Montreal in sponsoring U.S.-dollar securitizations of prime credit-card receivables from its managed portfolio. The market is still awaiting its first U.S. institutional deal.

Since the financial crisis, only one other sponsor, Invictus Capital Partners, has issued publicly rated mortgage bonds backed entirely by investor loans.

That's significantly wider than 121 basis points average for new CLOs backed by broadly syndicated loans that were issued in December.

The specialty finance company is contributing all of the collateral for the $259.7 million deal; by comparison, the previous deal included collateral contributed by Goldman Sachs.

Slower growth to interest rates and home prices will boost housing affordability in 2019, according to Fannie Mae.

The $312 million transaction a 24-month reinvestment period, in which principal collections can be used to invest and acquire additional loans for the collateral pool.

GoldenTree's $757 million CLO is the first deal seeking to price in the 2019 primary market, while Octagon Credit Investors is refinancing a $791.5M, 2014-vintage CLO (for a second time).

The company has filed a request with a federal judge in Pennsylvania for a summary judgment in two counts against it, accusing the bureau of failing to provide evidence.

The collateral for the $550 million transaction is slightly weaker than that of its prior deal, but rating agencies expect cumulative net losses to be in the same range.

Executives at Key pushed back against doubts over a deal for Laurel Road Bank’s digital lending platform so late in the credit cycle, arguing that its customers are prime borrowers with high incomes.

The two latest transactions will push announced deal volume at or above $6 billion for the first two weeks of 2019.