ABS

Commercial real estate sales, prices and lending showed improvement in the first quarter but regulators expect bank losses on CRE loans will be elevated for at least another year.

When it comes to the "buyback wars" between originators and secondary market investors, the best defense is a good offense. And that entails hiring outside due diligence firms, attorneys, and an army of in-house underwriters whose mission is to refute repurchase claims and fight off allegations that a loan was fraudulent and therefore should be bought back.

Robert Story, Jr., chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reacted to the passage of S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.

Amherst Securities Group hired Dan Hoffman as head of sales. In this position, Hoffman will be responsible for managing Amherst's fixed-income sales group.

Former head of U.S. asset securitization at Barclays Capital Michael Wade will join Credit Suisse this summer as a managing director and co-head of asset finance in the global markets solutions group, according to an internal memo.

Dan Castro has joined institutional broker dealer BTIG. Further boosting the company’s fixed-income competencies, Castro will be creating a structured finance analytics and strategy group at the firm.

After three weeks of contentious debate, the Senate approved landmark financial reform legislation 59 to 39 late Thursday.

Capital One has filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to possibly issue an ABS under its Capital One Auto Receivables trust.

Independent third-party review firm Allonhill hired Ross Gammill as director of the firm’s new commercial due diligence offering.

Most sectors have by now actively returned to the private bond market. However, real estate is still the one little piggy that stayed home.

Mortgage Delivery Specialists (MDS) and Indecomm-Mortgage Dynamics (IMDI) have formed a strategic alliance.

The government program to stem the rising tide of foreclosures has gotten off to a slow start for sure, but there's hope yet that the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) will catch fire and may even stem "strategic defaults."

Elgin Capital, a London-based asset manager, will start purchasing debtor-in-possession loans backing U.S.-based companies for its CLOs.

The tranches in the $325 million ALM Loan Funding 2010-1 LTD CLO — arranged by Citigroup and managed by Apollo Management — have been priced, a source familiar with the situation said.

Members of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee are concerned the recovery in the housing market has "stalled," according to newly released minutes of its April 28 meeting.

S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies and Fiserv announced a partnership to further industry implementation of the American Securitization Forum’s (ASF) Loan Identification Number Code (LINC) initiative.

The Senate overwhelmingly rejected a measure from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse late Wednesday that would require national banks to offer credit based on the interest rate limits in cardholders' states.

Fixed and adjustable mortgage rates hit their lows of 2010 in the week ending May 20, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

A number of deals from various sectors of the ABS market are currently being marketed.

Financial institutions are sounding the alarm over an amendment to the Senate bill that many initially deemed harmless but now see as threatening a key source of capital: trust-preferred securities.