ABS

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) recently finalized its Safe Harbor that protects the assets that are transferred to bank-sponsored securitization vehicles from a financial institution's FDIC receivership.

With the rising foreclosure numbers being a major issue in the market right now, Paladin Strategic Partners is responding to the problem by providing socially responsible solutions.

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

Profiting from a relationship with behemoth Petroleos de Brasil, Brazil’s Odebrecht Oleo e Gas is tapping the structured finance for a whopping $1.5 billion. Santander and HSBC are reportedly arranging the deal. Neither bank returned requests for comment.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is establishing a new effective date of May 16, 2011 for reporting ABS to the trade reporting and compliance engine (TRACE).

Standard & Poor’s predicts that the volume of outstanding structured finance securities in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP will fall to the 23%-25% range by the end of 2011, the weighting it had in 2003-2004.

Swiss Re has securitized $175 million of notes backed by extreme mortality risk, which is the company's third deal in the last 12 months under its Vita Capital IV program.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair became the first regulator to publicly shoulder some of the blame for foreclosure problems at several servicers, saying the agencies should have seen it coming.

Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit offered up a scathing review Monday of Basel III, saying the new rules do nothing to reduce pro-cyclicality or to level the playing field among different countries and differently regulated financial institutions.

U-Haul International (UHI) is in the market with a $155 million securitization called U-Haul S Fleet Series 2010-1. The offering is backed by a pool of new and to-be-acquired box trucks.

SNR Denton has hired Ricardo Martinez as a partner in its capital markets group. Martinez, who joins SNR Denton from Allen & Overy, will reside in the New York office.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) expressed its support for the portion of the Dodd-Frank Act that addressed conflicts of interest in securitization in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today.

Regulators took their first step this week toward drafting new rules that would require lenders to retain some risk before selling loans into the secondary market.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a report yesterday on the potential effect of credit risk retention requirements on securitization.

The Brazilian Finance Ministry’s recent hike of the IOF tax on foreign investment into fixed income investments to 6% from 4% is bound to have some kind of impact on the appetite of overseas money for local securitization products. The increase comes after a 2 percentage point hike earlier this month.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) proposal that would mandate fair value accounting treatment for most banks is not finding any supporters in the institutional investor space, a new study claims.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published recommendations for market interventions and securitization in emerging markets after meeting at Istanbul last week.

Trinity Industries has a railcar lease-backed transaction called Trinity Rail Leasing 2010-1 (TRL 2010-1).

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair said the growing robo-signing scandal was symptomatic of the poor incentives that marred the securitization market, but she opposed a universal freeze on foreclosures.

Bingham expanded its Hong Kong office by adding three partners namely, Laurence Isaacson, Vincent Sum and Mark Fucci.