Consumer ABS

Late yesterday, Standard & Poor's affirmed ratings on 239 ABS classes of FFELP-backed SLABS that it placed on credit watch negative last July.

Sovereign Bank is taking its credit card operations in house.

The Federal Reserve Board said Friday it will hold three public hearings on Capital One Financial Corp.'s proposed $9 billion purchase of online bank ING Direct USA.

CIT Group closed a new $2 billion revolving credit facility with a bank syndicate.

A U.S. Appeals Court upheld a lower court ruling rejecting claims by FICO that a new credit score developed by credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and TransUnion infringed on its trademark and ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel a FICO trademark.

ABS investors have concluded, according to a report released by Barclays Capital analysts today, that regardless of a rating action or lack thereof by Standard & Poor's, the FFELP student loan asset class is still fundamentally strong.

Warren Buffett's $5 billion public vote of confidence in Bank of America, happily for him, does not require actual confidence. The terms of the legendary investor's deal, which grants Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway $5 billion in perpetual preferred stock and warrants to buy BofA stock at just over $7 a share, include no lockup period.

Echoing views from a previous article published by ASR, Moody's Investor Service said today that performance has stayed strong across all U.S. auto loan ABS types since mid-2009.

Two new Japanese credit card receivable securitizations that total of JPY4 billion ($52 million) are in the market.

In an ironic twist, the commercial banking industry is coming to the defense of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).