ABS

Turkey’s Garanti Bank is in discussion with the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) over receiving straight funding or a guarantee in a deal that could potentially be a structured transaction, said two sources familiar with the process.

Bingham McCutchen is expanding its presence to California by hiring Dan Passage in the firm's Los Angeles office.

Guatemala’s Banco Industrial has closed a three-tranche $160 million structured deal, an upsize from the $100 million initially proposed, according to sources close to the deal.

PERILS , the Zurich-based firm offering industrywide European catastrophe insurance data, today reported that the total limits placed based on the PERILS industry loss index since the start of 2010 is now over $2.5 billion.

Fitch Ratings submitted its comment letter in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Solicitation of Comment to Assist in Study on Assigned Credit Ratings, which is required by Section 939F of the Dodd-Frank Act.

International law firm Walkers launched its Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) group, bringing together lawyers within the firm that have expertise in alternative risk transfer arrangements such as catastrophe bonds, reinsurance sidecars and securitization vehicles.

KGS-Alpha Capital Markets hired Robert Piano for the firm's new ABS team. Piano joins from Barclays Capital after nine years in the bank's asset securitization group, where he was most recently a director specializing in esoteric asset deals.

Minnesota has selected Barclays Capital to lead a team of eight underwriting firms that will bring the state’s first ever tobacco bond sale to market this fall.

RBS Securities has poached Pat Beranek from Mizuho Securities to be jointly responsible for trading non-mortage ABS with Alan Johannsen, the Stamford, Connecticut-based bank said in a release. Beranek will report to Adam Siegal, co-head of U.S. ABS, MBS and CMBS Trading.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. has completed a term securitization deal called Sierra Timeshare 2011-2 Receivables Funding.

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

Sol Systems launched a new financing platform that provides investors and developers with the tools they need to originate, evaluate, finance, and construct renewable energy projects.

Major League Baseball's (MLB) Club Trust Securitization has been rated 'A-' by Fitch Ratings.

Volatility in the capital markets has pushed industry participants towards safe-haven assets such as covered bonds.

The Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. long-term debt rating was followed a few days later by downgrades of debt issued by government-related entities such as the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), as well as a slew of funds with a majority of their exposures to U.S. Treasurys.

It's been a brutal time for executives in structured finance departments across Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.

The current shutdown of the European leveraged loan market, after a glimpse of better times earlier this year, has prompted some to fret, once again, about a barrage of loan maturities coming due just as many of Europe's CLOs come to the end of their reinvestment period.

As part of its ongoing efforts to better align the interests of participants in the RMBS market and address the issue of risk retention, the Asset Securitization Forum (ASF) has come out with some guidelines relating to the repurchase of RMBS.

The insurance industry, market analysts said, is increasingly relying on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) ratings to evaluate non-agency RMBS.