ABS

WASHINGTON — A plan to ban proprietary trading — once considered a long shot — is now almost certain to be enacted as part of a regulatory reform bill, thanks in part to a hearing Tuesday where Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives came under withering allegations of betting against the firm's own clients.

For the third time in as many days, Republicans voted to block debate from starting on a regulatory reform bill.

Fitch Ratings said that the number of defaulted European CMBS loans is likely to increase, despite recent improvements in the sector.

American Express is marketing a $804.5 million in asset-backed securities from its American Express Credit Account Master Trust.

Managing Director Paul Vambutas and Director James Murphy have left the student loan ABS group at Deustche Bank, the investment bank has confirmed. Sources told ASR that the duo is heading over to UBS.

Ed Raice, a former president of EMC Mortgage Corp., the nonprime mortgage arm of Bear Stearns, has raised private equity money and is in the hunt for a bank, preferably one near his home in Connecticut.

BMW Auto Leasing llc has filed a shelf registration for a new auto lease securitization deal, BMW Vehicle Lease Trust.

The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) this week published its principles for disclosures that serve as a guide for financial institutions preparing public disclosures which incorporate lessons learned from the financial crisis.

Jefferies has appointed Mark Fox as a managing director and head of emerging markets distribution, Europe.

Former managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald and at Deutsche Bank Christopher Beaudet has passed on.

BNP Paribas announced several appointments in its prime brokerage business.

Moody's Investors Service took negative rating actions on 30 structured finance transactions backed by Greek assets.

Housing prices in February posted their first annual increase in more than three years, according to a new reading of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

As anticipated, Senate Republicans stood together and blocked the Senate from starting debate on a game changing financial services reform bill.

Last June, as Standard & Poor's was in the process of changing their rating methodology for CMBS. After 10 months, S&P finally published a new methodology.

Collateralized debt obligations were never the main avenue for the sale of banks' trust-preferred securities. But it's on such credit-market side streets where their buyers — fellow banks, especially small ones — have gotten mugged.

As the Federal Reserve begins looking for ways to reduce its $1.1 trillion of agency MBS holdings, a group of private sector policy analysts are advancing a proposal that would finance the transfer of agency MBS back to the GSEs.

The U.K. consumer ABS transaction, Paragon Personal and Auto Finance (PPAF 3), recently passed its step-up date on April 17 without being called, resulting in a doubling of the coupons due on the notes.

The PrimeX index is scheduled to launch on April 28th, 2010 but it has already begin trading ahead of its official start date, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

U.S. Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) of Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Des Moines and New York have now been successfully using Principia Partners' Principia Structured Finance Platform (Principia SFP) for 15 years.