CDOs/CLOs

Troubled bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. posted a gain in its statutory surplus even as its bankrupt parent recorded a net loss in its fourth-quarter filing Wednesday.

Portfolio managers are trying to assess the damage the repricing tidal wave has inflicted on their funds, with most dreading what their returns will look like once the water recedes, while other say the damage will be light.

Assured Guaranty announced today that chief operating officer Séan W. McCarthy will be leaving the company at the end of the month to “pursue other opportunities.”

The $5.7 billion plan San Bernardino County Employees¹ Retirement Association (SBCERA) previously discussed two potential CLO investments at last week¹s meeting.

Lloyds TSB Bank and the Bank of Scotland issued a £1.45 billion ($2.35 billion) CLO of project finance loans.

Ally Financial said late Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury will be repaid $2.7 billion from the sale of all the Trust Preferred Securities that the agency holds in the bank holding company and mortgage lender.

Goldman Sachs said in regulatory paperwork filed on Monday that it could lose about $3.43 billion as a result of judicial, regulatory and arbitration proceedings launched against the firm over the last decade.

Lawmakers laid out a series of ambitious deadlines in the Dodd-Frank Act, requiring regulators to complete roughly 170 new rules by July.

The Dodd-Frank Act's Section 939A prompts banking regulators to remove any "reference to, or requirements of reliance on, credit ratings" in their regulations and capital requirements. The uncertainty of how regulators will interpret those words has the ABS industry bubbling and proposals emerging.

Borrower behavior changes over time and investors and lenders should constantly adjust the way they utilize the different credit score values to accurately predict loan performance, according to officials from FICO and VantageScore.