ABS

Charles Plosser, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, on Thursday sided with top regulators in saying they were unlikely to complete the Volcker Rule by its summer deadline."It is not clear at all that we will make the July deadline given the complexities," Plosser told reporters following a speech before the National Economist Club.

Law firm Mayer Brown has brought on Richard Spitzer as a partner in its insurance finance group.

Charles Schwab is looking for a managing director who will focus on conducting structured finance analysis on ABCP and non-mortgage ABS, according to job database Fins Finance.

Sanctuary Housing Association and its subsidiaries, the Sanctuary Group, plan to issue a £300 million ($477 million) secured bond transaction to support their debt-management strategy.

Private-label student-loan ABS seems to be doing better, at least in terms of issuance. Volumes have hit $1.4 billion in the year-to-date, a figure equal to 70% of 2011’s overall number, according to researchers at Barclays Capital. But Sallie Mae has been the only primary-market issuer for twenty months now, and the bar was set low by last year’s number of deals — only three.

Mayer Brown has hired Stephen Rooney for its New York office as a partner and co-leader of its insurance finance group.

As a regulatory deadline rapidly approaches, big banks are becoming increasingly anxious about how they should comply with a ban on proprietary trading.

Ally Bank is set to sell a $500 million flooplan deal under its Ally Master Owner Trust. The transaction is backed by new and used car inventory and light and medium duty truck and van inventory.

Global structured finance issuance's modest pace in 1Q12 is credit positive for new-issuance in these products that include ABS, RMBS, CMBS and CLOs, according to an emailed note from Standard & Poor's this morning.

Utility tariff securitizations - which allow former monopolies to recover upfront their investments in equipment, deferred power procurement or the cost of storm damage - have not always been controversial.

In the ASR Scorecards database's preliminary public lead manager rankings for 1Q12, Citigroup Global Markets took the No. 1 spot with a 12.6% market share and $4.8 billion sold. Citi rose three spots from 1Q11 with a 14.7% market share and $2.07 billion sold. ASR's 1Q12 numbers are as of March 26 while its 1Q11 are as March 31, 2011.

The latest wave of proposed European regulations on rating agencies, known as CRA3, contains a rule that has unsettled players from every corner of the financial market: enforced ratings rotation.

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

Experian Information Solutions' research indicates that, while the credit quality of auto loans may be slipping, it remains high enough to ensure the strong performance of the 2011 and 2012 vintages of securities backed by such loans.

Federal regulators ought to start over on the Volcker Rule, and get back to basics.

FirstEnergy of Ohio is said to be prepping a $500 million securitization of deferred energy costs.

State Street Global Markets' Investor Confidence Index(ICI) for March 2012 showed that the outlook of both American and European institutional investors improved.

Swiss Re has done a $200 million 144A multi-peril natural catastrophe risk deal via Combine Re. This offering is the first catastrophe bond to combine the risks of two reinsured parties.

New York's Suffolk County's tobacco ABS is in the market. The deal, worth $38.1 million, is called Suffolk Tobacco Asset Securitization Corp. Series 2012.