ABS

The City of New York is in the market with a $73.4 million deal with JPMorgan Securities serving as the lead manager.

The Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) said today that it will open up a public comment period on the new rules presented under the Dodd-Frank Reform Bill. This will before the official comment periods have started.

Several significant initiatives have helped to increase transparency in the global structured finance market, making it possible for rating agencies to assign credit ratings to structured finance issues without the cooperation of the relevant issuer or arranger, according to Fitch Ratings.

Credit card issuers have dropped many policies that lawmakers deemed unfair and barred under the CARD Act, but some new practices that could put consumers at risk are increasing, according to a report from the Pew Health Group's Safe Credit Cards Project.

A fight is brewing between regulators and Congress over how to develop a covered bond market, with the latest salvo expected to be fired as soon as Tuesday, when the House Financial Services Committee could begin voting on a bill tackling the issue.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp. said it completed a term securitization transaction involving the issuance of $350 million of investment-grade ABS notes called Sierra Timeshare 2010-2 Receivables Funding.

Spain's Ahorro y Titulizacion said it is working on a €22.9 billion ($29.7 billion) securitization for the Instituto de Credito Oficial, a Spanish government agency that lends to businesses, according to a Reuters report.

It will take five years to turn the new federal financial reform law into rules and regulation, an industry expert from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said last week.

Fitch Solutions appointed Neil Smith as the managing director for its research services group.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed to Congress to amend the definition of “security” under federal securities laws to include life settlements.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has arranged a $300 million CLO, surprising market participants who, after the worsening of the debt crisis overseas, weren’t expecting to see new CLOs for some time. In fact, other deals are in the works as well, sources say.

General Motors Co.'s deal to buy AmeriCredit Corp. says as much about the state of consumer finance as it does about the auto industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will give securitization issuers six months to omit credit ratings from ABS registration statements filed under Regulation AB, the SEC announced Thursday in a 'no action' letter.

Sales of existing single-family homes fell 5.6% in June, following a 1.6% decline in May, a decent showing in the wake of federal tax credits for homebuyers expiring in the early spring.

Ambac Financial Group Friday completed the sale of RangeMark Financial Services, the advisory services company it helped launch.

General Motors will acquire AmeriCredit in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion, the firm announced today.

Mortgage application activity increased 7.6% in the week ending July 16 with refinancing and purchase activity higher.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Deutsche Bank Securities $7.5 million for negligently misrepresenting delinquency data in connection with the issuance of subprime securities, the regulator said today.

The repeal of Section 436(G) of the Securities Act of 1933 --- what the Wall Street Journal in an article this morning called an “unintended consequence” of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act --- is likely to open rating agencies to unprecedented liability for the quality of their ratings on ABS transactions, according to Barclays Capital analysts.

Credit conditions are improving for some of the top card issuers but the effects of new regulations and long-term unemployment will continue to challenge their portfolios' performance.