Finance

Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley have structured a $355 million deal backed by billboard collateral, the first of its kind to be rated by Moody’s Investors Service. The deal securitizes 10,172 billboard faces, associated with 4,982 outdoor advertising structures and related permits, licenses, ground leases and the property on which the billboards stand, according to a Moody’s pre-sale report. In the 12 months through last September the portfolio of billboards brought in $98 million in revenue, generating an operating margin of 61%. Minnesota-based AOA Management Company Limited Partnership will manage the billboards for the deal’s issuer. The agency gave preliminary ratings of ‘A(sf)’ for the $254 million in A notes, ‘Ba2(sf)’ for the $44 million in B notes, and ‘B3(sf)’ for the $57 million in C notes.

With securitization's future paved with uncertainty, coming up with an estimate of what RMBS volumes will amount to depends on a number of variables.

Equifax will be linking its ABS Credit Risk Insight Direct to Lewtan's ABSNet Loan comprehensive database of residential deal and mortgage performance data.

Historically low mortgage rates are a crucial component of record affordability for home buyers, but lack of confidence in the market and fear of further price declines are challenges that are outweighing that factor, Credit Suisse analysts wrote Wednesday.

As the biggest player in a field of servicing giants, Bank of America Corp. is absorbing the greatest amount of mortgage buyback pain, but some of its problems seem magnified even compared with its size.

Fannie Mae Chief Financial Officer David Johnson plans to leave the company by yearend, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.

American Home Mortgage Servicing (AHMS) late Tuesday announced that it had hired GMAC Mortgage veteran David Applegate as its new president and CEO.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that its Refinance Index plunged 16.5% to ~3831 for the week ending Nov.12. This is the lowest the index has been since early July.

Defunct bond insurer Syncora Guarantee reported positive net income for the first three quarters of the year, but said near-term insolvency is still a concern if its insured portfolio tumbles.

The 50-state attorneys general's investigation into the foreclosure scandal might be close to a settlement, reports indicate.

Top executives from Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase are seeking to reassure lawmakers that exhausting alternatives to foreclosure for troubled borrowers is their top priority as they face ongoing questions about their servicing processes.

Originator support should diminish for Spanish structured finance transactions through refinancing and restructuring of loans that are at risk or delinquent, Fitch Ratings analysts said.

Ireland is the latest country to test the resiliency of European securitization structures against sovereign risk.

A rising number of RMBS are now exposed to 'tail risk', Fitch Ratings said in a report released today.

Among the mortgage market risks Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) chair Sheila Bair has her eye on are recent foreclosure concerns, interest rates, mortgage underwriting and government reallocation away from housing—the last being something she sees advantages to but also acknowledges some potential problems with.

Amid continued weakness for the Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLBank), its chief regulator said it is committed to getting the regional GSEs back to their core mission of lending to members.

The Federal Reserve's recently launched asset purchase program is making the market nervous.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) issued a White Paper clarifying the legal principles and processes underpinning the assignment and transfer of home mortgages and the creation of MBS.

Microfinance securitizations tend to be closely tied to the ratings of the originator/servicer, said Fitch Ratings Director Deep N. Mukherjee in a recent report. “In the absence of suitable mitigants with respect to such counterparties, Fitch will link the rating of the transactions to the rating of the originator/servicer,” Mukherjee said.

C-BASS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The failed firm is an issuer, servicer and investor in subprime RMBS.