Word had it late last week that Lehman Brothers was eyeing certain members of Credit Suisse First Boston's CMBS trading team, and is looking to make a hire very shortly.
Moody's Investor Services has downgraded the ratings on three tranches of Commercial Mortgage Acceptance Corp. Pass-Through Certificates, Series 1997-ML1. Class F-1 was downgraded from Ba1 to Ba3, Class F-2 was downgraded from Ba3 to B1, and Class G was downgraded from B2 to Caa2. The ratings on the remaining tranches of the deal were re-affirmed. Moody's attributed the downgrades to a deterioration in the performance of two of the pool's 12 loans.
Freddie Mac blasted the proposed capital restructuring of the FHLB System, saying it does not tie capital to risk, does not provide for "true" permanent capital, and could allow a few large members to take control of an FHLBank. Freddie said the proposal underestimates the risks associated with holding residential mortgages in portfolio. The proposal sets a capital reserve of only 45 basis points against the best mortgages, a level that should be higher, say Freddie Mac.
