CDOs/CLOs

McGraw-Hill Cos. announced today that its quarterly earnings fell 44% due to business dropping at its Standard & Poor's unit.

Jefferies & Co. made news last week when it hired 10 senior executives for its mortgage-backed securities trading group, in an effort to expand its fixed-income business.

The three major rating agencies came under attack again last week when the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a meeting about the agencies' role in the current credit markets turmoil. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) presided over the hearings.

Continued downgrades of market value structures (MVS) - and subsequent restructurings in some cases - have called attention to their sensitivity to pricing dislocations.

At the onset of CDO troubles this past summer, market participants predicted that tough times would weed out the established players from the fly-by-night shops. As the CLO market begins to pick up, it appears the predictions might be coming true.

Springfield and Boston, Mass.- based Babson Capital Management has acquired Murray Capital Management (MCM), a distressed debt and special situations management outfit based in New York.

Fitch Ratings released revised criteria for rating market value structures (MVS) after a review that the rating agency first announced in December 2007. The review was a response to unforeseen stresses on current market value instruments.

The first quarter of 2008 brought a slew of grim announcements for the financial guarantor industry, including a decision by some to put new business on hold altogether. But despite market troubles, the monolines held on in the beginning of 2008, even if only by a thread.

The Basel committee last Wednesday announced plans to enhance Basel II, a move that involves some extra steps to "strengthen the resilience of the banking system."

It was not exactly a stunning comeback for the securitization industry, but last week's collection of deals marked something of a stepped up pace of issuance and there was talk of revived investor confidence in the industry.