ABS

Some investors are wary about the $8.5 billion Bank of America agreed to pay in the MBS-related settlement it worked out with 22 large money managers, but if approved the bank will be giving up more than a one-time cash payout. The settlement imposes requirements on the servicer that appear likely to portend long-term and much broader benefits for investors.

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

Chief executives from the country's largest banks sent a letter to the White House and Congress Thursday urging them to reach an agreement the week of July 25 to raise the debt ceiling.

Turkey’s debut covered bond consists of three tranches pricing between 200 basis points and 250 basis points over Euribor, a spread that will be swapped into a Turkish rate for originator Sekerbank at the time of the closing, said Huib-Jan de Ruijter, director of financial markets at Dutch development bank the FMO, one of the investors in the deal.

Greenwich Associates released its annual list of top leaders in the U.S. institutional fixed-income trading market today, revealing a deadlock for first between Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan with each firm holding an 11.5% overall market share.

Friday's European bank stress tests revealed that all securitization positions in European banking and trading books were stressed, according to market reports.

Over 80% of 'Aaa'-rated European RMBS and ABS have maintained their ratings throughout the crisis, spanning from May 2007 to May 2011, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service.

Finacity Corp. announced today in a release that it had paired with Germany's Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (NORD/LB) to increase an existing trade-receivables securitization for Alliance One international from $100 million to $125 million.

Portugal and Greece won't lose access to European Central Bank (ECB) liquidity, said the ECB in separate announcements.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Portugal by four notches to 'Ba2' from 'Baa1' with a negative outlook yesterday.

Chariot Funding, Falcon Asset Securitization Co. and Jupiter Securitization Co. have together funded a $3.024 billion auto ABS. JPMorgan Chase Bank serves as the administrative agent for all three conduits, which are partially supported, multiseller ABCP programs.

Until the financial crisis brought CLO issuance to a virtual halt, CLOs were among the largest and fastest growing structured products in the marketplace, representing approximately 60% of institutional participation in syndicated loans in 2006. While the long-term impact of the Dodd-Frankrisk retention rules on CLOs remains uncertain, the short-term outlook for new CLO issuance is promising. As spreads on the triple-A rated tranches of CLOs have continued to tighten, the arbitrage on CLO collateral has become increasingly attractive in recent months. For the first time since the onset of the financial crisis, CLOs are showing signs of a sustained revival.

The U.S. Congress and U.S. regulatory agencies have imposed or proposed broad-based and aggressive laws and rulemaking in response to the failure of securitizations directly or indirectly backed by U.S. subprime residential mortgage loans originated in the several years prior to the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Notwithstanding this aggressive response, there is no empirical evidence that transactions backed by other types of assets, including asset-backed securities (ABS) of foreign issuers, have been prone to such failures or merit coverage in the same regulatory scheme as applies to securitizations backed by subprime residential mortgage loans.

From Brussels to D.C., the season of powwows is here, and ASR's editors have certainly been getting around.

A common denominator in housing finance reform is the importance of the role that the private-label RMBS market must play.

According to preliminary figures from the ASR Scorecards database, $31.03 billion in public ABS was issued in 1H11. This is a boost in comparison with the $26.41 billion recorded a year ago.

Regulation was a main focus at the recently concluded Global ABS 2011 conference held in Brussels in mid June. One of the issues was Solvency II, the proposed new European regulatory regime that, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service, is probably going to increase regulatory capital requirements for both European Union and European Economic Area insurers and reinsurers when it is implemented in 2013.

The regulatory overhaul of the housing market has taken center stage in most discussions regarding securitizations.

Tejas Securities Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westech Capital Corp. hired Samir Shah as managing director and co-sales manager of structured products.

Grant Thornton’s public finance practice has been selected as the structuring and refunding verification agent for NYS Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp.’s (TSFC) $959.1 million ABS offering, which was priced by Barclays Capital on Tuesday.