ABS

The merger of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is shaping up to be the match made in regulatory hell.

Ambac Financial Group said that the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) has filed its Plan of Rehabilitation for the Segregated Account of Ambac Assurance Corp. in Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin.

Investec is in the market with a U.K. RMBS deal worth ₤186 million ($295.26). Barclays Capital and Investec Bank are managing the eight-tranche transaction called Residential Mortgage Securities 25 (RMS 25).

Remember all those prognostications from industry experts how the Dodd-Frank bill would destroy the nonbank segment of the mortgage industry, resulting in a total takeover of residential finance by depositories?

Solar installer SPG Solar has formed a new structured finance group. SPG’s new group will be headed by Michael Johnson, who joined SPG in June 2010 as vice president of project finance. Johnson is the former managing director of the renewable energy investment program for the National Development Council.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said today that it is seeking public comment on proposed regulations to require ABS issuers and credit rating agencies that rate ABS to provide investors with new disclosures about representations, warranties, and enforcement mechanisms.

Some panelists were optimistic while others were a little bit more guarded on the future of securitization at this week’s Information Management Network ABS East conference.

United Capital Markets (UCM) is hosting tonight's concert and cocktail party that headlines Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Information Management Network’s (IMN) ABS East conference.

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

As the U.S. grapples with staging a private-label mortgage market comeback, some analysts have pointed to the Danish mortgage market model as a possible solution.

Lewtan's ABSNet Loan HomeVal property valuations provide quite stark valuation differences on underlying properties of RMBS transactions relative to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Case-Shiller 20 (CS20), and combinations of the two.

Rule 122a stipulates the main investor requirements with which banks have to comply. The regulation calls for these financial institutions to have formal procedures and operations in place to monitor - on an ongoing basis and in a timely manner - performance information on the underlying exposures in structured finance assets.

As the Financial Stability Oversight Council prepared to hold its first meeting Friday, members of the panel faced open doubts from lawmakers and others about how fast it can move and what it can accomplish.

Fitch Ratings formally reviewed 99% of its U.S. structured finance ratings over the past 12 months as of August 2010, the rating agency said today.

Last Monday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) board of directors approved the final rule to replace its Safe Harbor transition rule on securitization. The finalized version extends until Dec 31 the transitional Safe Harbor - allowing the ABS market three months to adjust to the final rule's requirements.

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?