ABS

Churchill Financial announced that Olympus Partners, a Stamford, CT-based private equity firm, has bought the asset management firm.

George Skelton joined Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking in New York this week as a director in its cross asset solutions group. He is coveringr institutional accounts for the distribution of structured credit products.

Thomas Fahey will be lending his global fixed-income expertise to Loomis, Sayles & Co. as a senior macro strategist, a new role at the firm.

A new report issued by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on last year's failure of Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union (EFFCU) found that the one-time high-flying CU was brought down by risky investments in CDOs as well as loan losses and other concerns.

The Senate just rejected a Republican measure to eliminate a provision in the regulatory reform bill that requires ABS issuers to retain "skin-in-the-game," or take steps to ensure that their loans meet standards to reduce risk.

Ambac Financial Group late Tuesday estimated that it will report a first-quarter net loss between $650 million and $750 million, according to documents filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bond insurers Assured Guaranty and MBIA each released first-quarter earnings Monday, and while their results were vastly dissimilar, they shared at least one thing in common — each company’s stock quickly tumbled afterward.

Deutsche Bank Securities analysts expect nominal spreads to be very volatile as a result of Greek debt issues, and to bounce in the opposite direction to rates, they said in research released this week.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) board of directors yesterday approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) clarifying the safe harbor protection in a conservatorship or receivership for financial assets transferred by an insured depository institution (IDI) in a securitization or participation.

Ginnie Mae guaranteed over $32.6 billion in MBS in April. The agency also reported that in March, 1.85% of the single-family loans in Ginnie Mae guaranteed securities were 90-days or more delinquent, down from 2.02% last February.

The Senate adopted an amendment 63 to 36 on Wednesday that would establish minimum mortgage underwriting standards, including banning yield spread premiums and no documentation loans.

Moody's Investors Service today downgraded 36 classes of notes in 23 Greek structured finance transactions and placed one class of notes in a CDO transaction on review for possible downgrade.

The auto sector is gearing up for more deals in the pike. AmeriCredit Financial Services and American Honda Finance Corp. are both prepping automobile-backed transactions.

Basis risk is exposing some U.S. FFELP SLABS to considerable short-term volatility, Fitch Ratings said.

Redwood Trust, which recently came to market with a jumbo MBS deal, is already working on a follow-up bond offering, according to industry officials familiar with the matter.

Assured Guaranty late Monday announced its first-quarter operating income was $89.6 million, a 41% increase from the same period one year ago.

American Securitization Forum (ASF) Executive Director Tom Deutsch released the following statement as a response to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) regarding safe harbor in the event of a bank failure.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) on Tuesday revamped its securitization proposal, mandating that depositories hold a 5% risk retention piece, but exempting loans sold to the GSEs and into bonds guaranteed by Ginnie Mae.

The European Union (EU) unveiled a €750 billion($952 billion) bailout package yesterday to help stabilize the euro against the U.S. dollar.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will take another stab today at imposing checks on securitization.