Finance

Social Finance's launch of a hedge fund to buy its loans should set off alarm bells among online lending cheerleaders in venture capital and stock markets; it also points the way to a long-term future for best-of-breed alternative lenders.

Fannie Mae said Friday it offloaded much of the credit risk on $19.5 billion of mortgages to a group of insurers and reinsurers via two Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) transactions.

Provisional ratings were provided Friday to a pair of asset-backed securitizations to Apollo Aviation Group and work-vehicle fleet leasing firm Element Financial Corp.

Avis Rent a Car is seeking to issue up to $300 million in securitized notes, in one of its smallest securitizations of its rental car leasing contracts in years through the Avis Budget Rental Car Funding (AESOP) master trust.

The increasingly troubled sector often draws comparisons to the subprime mortgage market of the 2000s. But the more apt analogue is the auto-lending sector of the 1990s.

No surprise, Moody’s Investors Service has not been asked to rate Citigroup’s latest securitization of unsecured consumer loans originated by Prosper Marketplace.

Cerberus Capital Management is marketing its first securitization of re-performing mortgages of the year.

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are marketing nearly $2 billion of bonds backed by commercial mortgages used to facilitate Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII’s acquisition of BioMed Realty Trust.

Octagon Investment Partners’ new CLO is its first leveraged loan collateralization since September, as well as its debut portfolio being acquired last November by global insurance asset firm Conning.

Despite months of concerns over the credit standing for troubled Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the specialty pharmaceutical company remains the single-largest obligor in collateralized loan obligation holdings.

While the $1.9 billion of bonds are not guaranteed by the government, most of the underlying loans could have been sold to Fannie and Freddie, and the transaction accomplishes the same thing as the GSEs' risk-transfer deals.

Issuance of bonds backed by aircraft leases is booming as airlines turn to lessors to fill gaps in their fast-expanding fleets in response to falling energy prices and rising passenger traffic. They are increasingly booking the older, less fuel-efficient airplanes in lessor’s fleets, which can now be operated profitably.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asked a federal court Tuesday to shut down a California company accused of running a student debt relief scam that allegedly charged borrowers millions in illegal fees.

Wells Fargo is securitizing $712 million in commercial mortgages with heavy exposure to offices and self-storage facilities. The collateral is also less heavily concentrated compared to other CMBS deals covered by Fitch Ratings.

Ford Motor Credit is returning with a second securitization of dealer inventory financing in two months

Total commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Prosper Marketplace on Monday announced a three-year agreement to offer financing to consumers making improvements to their homes through the website HomeAdvisor.com.

J.P. Morgan Chase is preparing one of the largest private label mortgage securitizations since the financial crisis. It is backed by a pool of over 6,000 loans totaling nearly $1.9 billion.

Late payments on subprime auto loans packaged into bonds have eclipsed 2009 recessionary levels and are now at a level not seen in nearly two decades, according to Fitch Ratings.