ABS

The 30-day delinquency rate on securitized multifamily mortgages fell slightly in April after a 332 basis point spike in March due to the default of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village project in Manhattan.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT) started on a new securitization to provide additional capital and increase its investment capacity.

JPMorgan Chase and Ladder Capital Finance are prepping a CMBS worth $800 million in June, according to published reports.

After several quarters of horrendous losses, GMAC's residential mortgage division Residential Capital (ResCap) posted a small profit in the first quarter, but the company attributed the turnaround, in part, to the "extinguishment of debt."

A quarterly survey by two Chicago professors shows a dramatic increase in the number of "strategic defaults" where an underwater homeowner willingly defaults on his mortgage even though he can afford to make the payments.

DLA Piper hired Peter White, Charles Baker, Mark Whitaker and Katie Baynes as partners in the corporate and finance group.

GNMA technicals are expected to be favorable over the near term. In recent research, JPMorgan Securities analysts noted that CMO demand is taking out around 60% of the issuance, while overseas and domestic bank demand has been strong.

Finacity Corp. has extended a MXN 550 million ($44.8 million) variable rate investment grade bond for one of its clients, Vitro Envases Norteamerica (VENA), a 100% owned subsidiary of Vitro.

Fannie Mae has adapted new standards for buying and securitizing ARMs. The mortgage firm is changing eligibility criteria to protect consumers from potential dramatic payment increases, according to a press release from Fannie Mae.

On the heels of the first Jumbo mortgage securitization since the crisis, Citigroup is cranking up originations of such loans to meet resurgent demand from borrowers and investors.

CMBS pricing saw some unprecedented trading margins over the last several weeks, but market players said that the sentiment does not carry through to fundamentals.

The private-label Jumbo securitization from Redwood Trust called Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2010-H1 came to market last month, and that in itself is an accomplishment for a troubled mortgage securitization market.

April was not our market's finest moment. It may have been Goldman executives who were in the hot seat, but at times it was as if, yet again, securitization were on trial.

Founded in 1966, the Asian Development Bank has a mandate to reduce the poverty of its developing member countries (DMCs) and improve the quality of life of their people. It currently has 67 members. Those eligible for assistance must be DMCs and be located in the region under ADB's purview, which includes areas of the Pacific as well as Asia. In 2009, the bank disbursed $13.2 billion in loans, $1.1 billion in grants and $267.2 million in technical assistance.

The new-issue European market has remained active. In fact, according to Henderson Global Investors research, March was the first month since August 2007 that issuance in the European ABS primary market exceeded retained issuance, which comprises securitization issues retained by the originating bank for balance sheet liquidity or central bank repo purposes.

Emerging market players in the structured finance world might soon have a new platform to develop mortgage covered bonds: Peru. Legislation on this product is currently before the Peruvian congress and is piquing the interest of foreign and domestic ABS devotees alike.

ABCP outstandings throughout North America continue to decline as both the supply of and demand for paper has weakened. While conduits with non-traditional structures or those financing out-of-favor asset portfolios have exited the space, the remaining market players continue to cleanse unfavorable asset types from their portfolios and terminated non-core banking relationships.

A number of recent studies have documented the correlation between negative home equity and the incidence of defaults. A report by CoreLogic released in February stated that when negative equity exceeds either 25% of a loan's balance or $70,000, "homeowners begin to default with the same propensity as investors."

Now more than ever the case for developing a U.S. covered bond sector has become easier to make as investors want the security of a high-quality product.

Providing public deal-like disclosures on private placements? Issuers retaining a 5% stake in offerings issued from securities shelves? Requiring issuers to provide loan-level data regularly, even in the private market, and for asset classes where such detailed data has never been available?