Consumer ABS

The idea of undergoing a stress test comes across as a much-needed safeguard to ease investor fears that the European banks with which they do business have sufficient capital to deal with future " stress" scenarios.

Once-regular issuers in the "orphaned" ABS market backed by government-guaranteed FFELP loans are now scrambling to reposition their businesses and offering new private loan products. But investors in student loan ABS are unlikely to see a regular deal flow anytime soon.

European ABS looks set to enter August on a quiet note. On the primary side, there are no new public offerings in the pipeline after last week's launch and pricing of Santander's auto loan ABS deal.

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised the haircuts for repo lending including ABS assets by four percentage points to 16% from 12%. The new haircuts for ABS lending will be valid as of January 2011.

Ford Motor Credit Co.'s (FMCC) pushed ahead with its ABS deal dubbed Ford Credit Auto Owner Trust 2010-B. This was after hitting a glitch after the rating agencies withdrew their ratings because of the repeal of Section 436(G) of the Securities Act of 1933 after President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) said today that it will open up a public comment period on the new rules presented under the Dodd-Frank Reform Bill. This will before the official comment periods have started.

After Ford Motor Credit Co.'s (FMCC) ABS sale had been reportedly pulled last Wednesday, along with a planned sale from another unamed issuer, the firm is pushing through with its auto ABS offering called Ford Credit Auto Owner Trust 2010-B.

Spain's Ahorro y Titulizacion said it is working on a €22.9 billion ($29.7 billion) securitization for the Instituto de Credito Oficial, a Spanish government agency that lends to businesses, according to a Reuters report.

It will take five years to turn the new federal financial reform law into rules and regulation, an industry expert from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said last week.

Fitch Solutions appointed Neil Smith as the managing director for its research services group.