Consumer ABS

As the European sovereign crisis and uncertainty in the U.S. housing market play havoc with the prices of securitizable assets, appraising risk seems as easy for investors as threading a needle while riding a rollercoaster.

Four months after downgrading U.S. Treasury bonds, Standard & Poor's has lowered or affirmed fewer than half of the highest-rated ABS guaranteed by the now-defunct Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP).

To achieve a recovery in both the housing sector and the overall economy, mortgage banks need insight into the misconceptions on how mortgage delinquency and economic stress have impacted borrower behavior. This includes insight into what a "strategic default" is.

American Airlines' bankruptcy could create some collateral damage for Citigroup Inc., which runs the airline's large rewards credit card program.

Santander Consumer Finance SA will issue a €912.3 million ($1.34 million) securitization of auto loans.

Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), on Tuesday named Richard Hornsby as chief operating officer and Jon Greenlee as deputy director of enterprise regulation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is initiating a process for streamlining and updating its consumer regulations with bureau officials seeking public input on which rules should be looked at first.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a proposal Tuesday that would remove references to credit ratings from its regulations, and posted guidance to help banks evaluate investment risks.The Dodd-Frank Act requires federal agencies to review regulations that required banks to use credit ratings to asses the creditworthiness of a security or money market instrument. Under the law, regulators must modify the rules to remove the references to credit ratings, and substitute them with an alternative standard.

Fitch Ratings expects to revise the rating outlook to negative for certain U.S. structured finance ratings. This is a result of the change in the U.S. sovereign’s rating outlook to negative from stable.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will announce today that he will not seek re-election next year, capping a 32-year career in Congress, a spokesman said Monday.