ABS

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) first-ever enforcement action Wednesday — hitting Capital One over card marketing practices — carried a pair of messages for the industry as a whole.

Spain’s Royal Decree Law 20/2012, which became effective on July 14, allows covered bonds to be backed by loans that finance export as well the as international expansion of Spanish firms. The new law offers further proof that the country’s banks have much fewer options in terms of traditional assets to support these bonds.

A Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) report released today showed that securitizations have represented a significant share of the capital structure of certain esoteric asset issuers. This makes ABS an important component in the overall financing available to these firms.

Nord/LB has launched a €500 million ($614.38 million) seven-year German covered bond that is backed by aircraft finance assets.

The transaction called Bealine PLC securitizing airport slots at Heathrow airport operated by British Airways (BA) relies heavily on BA's credit worthiness, Moody’s Investors Service analysts said in a conference call held yesterday.

The Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) is expanding its supervisory reach to focus on the 30 largest credit reporting agencies and credit bureaus.

Nearly three-quarters of senior tranches of the tobacco settlement bonds will default should cigarette consumption in the U.S. continue on its current rate of annual decline, said Moody's Investors Service in a report.Specifically, the rating agency finds that if the decline in consumption continues at a 3% to 4% pace, as Moody's projects, bonds constituting 74% of the aggregate outstanding balance of all the tobacco settlement bonds will default.

Lawmakers and financial market participants sparred Tuesday over the economic and other impacts of the Dodd-Frank law, as well as the resulting Volcker Rule and potential new money market fund rules.

While testifying before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises today, American Securitization Forum (ASF) Executive Director Tom Deutsch advised policy makers to thoroughly analyze how the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act’s various rules will cause cumulative harm to the securitization market.

An airport slot-backed ABS that falls under the rubric of a whole-business securitization appears to be approaching the runway. In a pre-sale today, Moody’s Investors Service said it had given a £250 million ($388 million) tranche of the deal a provisional rating of ‘A3,’ well above the ‘B1’ rating assigned to British Airways, which is linked to the payment obligations in the transaction.

The U.S. ABS market's post-July 4 issuance is a mix with Wyndham Worldwide Corp. and Sallie Mae joining two auto transactions from Hyundai Motor Co. and World Omni Financial Corp.

Today the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council announced how the mandatory provision of loan-by-loan ABS data will be introduced into the securitization single loan-level data repository known as the European DataWarehouse.

WASHINGTON — In an effort to squeeze out profits in a low-interest rate environment, banks are under increasing pressure to lower underwriting standards, offer new, potentially dangerous products and ignore operational risk, a federal banking regulator warned Thursday.

Representatives from the securitization industry and from the International Organization of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) task force on unregulated markets and products discussed the recently published Consultation Report on Global Developments in Securitization Regulation during a roundtable discussion hosted by the IOSCO. The July 2 meeting was at IOSCO’s headquarters in Madrid, Spain.

Issuance of European CLOs may be stalled, but 3i Debt Management believes that once the macro-economic picture improves, these structured finance vehicles will resume their role as important players in the region's loan market. That was part of the rationale for the London-based firm's recent acquisition of seven European CLOs from U.S. money manager Invesco.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) doesn't have a direct mandate over the securitization industry, yet it is one of the biggest regulatory wildcards, particularly for deals backed by residential mortgages in the foreseeable future.

Securitization market executives may want to reconsider their summer vacation plans. Not only are significant rules stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act likely to be issued soon, but an earlier proposal amending Regulation AB, which had been put on the backburner, may be finalized over the next few months.

The asset-backed commercial paper market, which is still less than a third of the size it was before the financial crisis, may be set to shrink even further.

ABCP looms large among the victims of Moody's bank downgrades on June 21. Some of these banks support ABCP conduits, which, in turn, saw their ratings drop. And in ABCP land, that single grade difference can make or break a conduit. It's because money market funds - ABCP's biggest investors - can only buy 'P-1' paper.