ABS

For the last three quarters of 2010, U.S. public ABS issuance reached $44.17 billion, according to preliminary figures from the ASR Scorecards database.

Over the past year, there has been considerable discussion around the 'refinancing cliff' and the looming gap between the supply and demand for leveraged loans.

Will the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ever bridge the Grand Canyon-sized gap between issuers of asset-backed securities and their investors when it comes to waterfalls and the Python language?

The urge to unwrap is pretty strong these days. On both the originating and investing sides of the bench, players are itching to ditch the monoline guarantees that no longer add value.

With the government nearly monopolizing mortgage origination, players are asking themselves: How do private companies create "affordability" products for non-prime borrowers and do so by funding themselves through a viable ABS market?

Elizabeth Warren, the top Obama administration official in charge of setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, made it clear late Wednesday that she intends to target financial disclosures as one of her top priorities.

Commercial lender CIT Group named Vincent Faino as senior vice president of business development for its vendor finance division.

Besides imposing a 5% risk retention requirement on securitizations by banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) also spelled out new standards that are particularly tough and aimed solely at issuers of RMBS.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) unexpectedly delayed the release of an interim rule to create a resolution system for the largest, most-connected banks and nonbanks, saying it needed to consult with other regulators first.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) released a statement saying that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) action today will seriously harm the federal government’s ability to exit the U.S. housing market and to reestablish a private label mortgage market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is set Monday to begin a Herculean task: creating a resolution procedure for large, systemically important firms that improves on the bankruptcy process but still resembles it enough that it does not unsettle the marketplace.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) appointed Simon Lewis as its chief executive. The new hire will assume his position on Oct. 1.

As the House gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would create a $30 billion small-business lending fund, a top Treasury Department official said the administration would move as quickly as possible to implement the program.

Turkey’s Vakifbank has completed an exchange offer to strip the wraps off tranches in its program backed by diversified payment rights (DPRs). Overall, the bank exchanged nearly 72% of the volume of the tranches on offer, with a Radian-covered tranche the only one to be retired in full. Some $549 million was offered and $394 million exchanged. Full results are attached. Standard Bank handled the deal.

House Republicans blasted the proposed Basel III capital standards on Wednesday, arguing the plan would make the system more uncertain without making it substantially more safe.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Wednesday said the U.S. would implement proposed international capital rules aimed at helping financial institutions withstand future crises by 2012.

Standard & Poor's has launched Understanding Ratings, a new information and education resource for investors found on the Web site www.understandingratings.com.

General Electric Credit Corp. (GECC) has a new equipment lease transaction called GE Equipment Midticket LLC, 2010-1.

As technical director of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Russell Golden is the person to whom financial institutions have been addressing their comment letters on a controversial proposal that would expand the use of fair value accounting.

Specialty finance firm Woodbridge Structured Funding appointed of Jim Klohn as corporate general counsel.