Avant, the online lending platform based in Chicago, appears to be back in the good graces of capital markets investors.

The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council tapped Lisa Pendergast, a respected industry veteran, as its executive director.

Issuance volume of asset-backed securities for the year through August 12, 2016.

Underwriting league tables for asset-backed securities for the year through August 12, 2016.

Mid-market commercial direct lender Newstar Financial is losing one of its founding members and a key figure in establishing its multi-faceted securitization platform with the announced retirement of treasurer and asset management head John Frishkopf.

The recent and ongoing upheaval in Libor rates is producing divergent outlooks on debt and equity positions in CLOs, says the Loan Syndications and Trading Association.

Standard & Poor’s on Thursday assigned an expected ‘AAA’ rating on the Class A (2016-5) series of C seven-year notes, the only tranche in the issuance. The notes will carry an interest rate of 1.27% and supported by 14% credit enhancement – a level in line with Chase’s recent receivables-backed issues in 2016.

American Honda Finance Corp. has filed for its third super prime loan securitization of the year, in a $1.25 billion transaction that could be upsized to $1.5 billion. The deal comes as the company has experienced growing levels of delinquencies and repossessions that have not shaken ratings agencies' faith in Honda's performance as a long-term asset-backed issuer.

The ratings agency raised its rankings of Ocwen as a residential mortgage prime, subprime, special and subordinate-lien servicer to average from below average, S&P said in a news release Tuesday. Similarly, Ocwen's rankings as a commercial mortgage special servicer and a small-balance commercial mortgage primary and special servicer were raised to average from below average.

Mill City Holdings, which was recently assigned ownership interests in a pair of CarVal Investors’ re-performing mortgage securitizations from 2015, is preparing a third deal involving formerly delinquent and defaulted mortgages. Mill City Mortgage Loan Trust 2016-1 is a transaction of a portfolio of 1,986 distressed or re-performing mortgages.

Nationstar HECM Loan Trust Asset-Backed Notes, Series 2016-3, is a $246.21 million asset-backed notes issuance supported by a $251 million collateral pool of properties tied to reverse mortgages or properties that have become bank-owned assets under the FHA’s HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) program.