ABS

The mortgage servicing industry should brace itself for a continued wave of redefaults on modified loans, according to Diane Pendley, managing director at Fitch Ratings.

The roughly $12 billion Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) moved last week to solicit proposals for a newly approved MBS fixed-income mandate.

Former GSE regulator James Lockhart is blaming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for encouraging poor underwriting standards during the housing bubble by not aggressively forcing their seller/servicers to buy back bad loans.

If knowledge is power, lenders are becoming more powerful.

Underscoring how important sales and people skills have become for loss mitigation, Bank of America Corp.'s home mortgage unit now has 660 originators working on loan modifications, an executive said.

Bingham McCutchen hired Susan Merrill, the head of enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), as a partner in its broker-dealer group in New York.

Australia-based FirstMac launched an offer of A$340 million ($315 million) of prime RMBS, according to a Bloomberg report.

Mercedez Benz is in the market with a $992.8 million auto-backed ABS while GMAC Mortgage is marketing a $458 million servicer advance-backed transaction.

Ambac Financial Group announced late Thursday net income of $558.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to an 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commision.

Credit default swap indices compiled by Fitch Solutions show subprime RMBS prices have continued to strengthen with some variation by vintage.

During the height of the mortgage boom, a thriving private-label MBS market "threatened" Fannie Mae financially, driving the congressionally chartered mortgage giant into the Alt-A market that ultimately led to huge credit losses at the company, a former top Fannie official told a congressional panel Friday.

Morgan Stanley-owned Saxon Mortgage has been identified as the seller of a $6.9 billion bulk package of residential servicing rights to Ocwen Loan Servicing, West Palm Beach, Fla.

Evercore Partners announced its latest acquisition yesterday with the news it would be taking on commercial real estate advisory boutique MJC Associates.

Good things, it seems come in threes, with three new CLOs in the works. Orix, Apollo Management and GSO Blackstone are arranging the three CLOs, sources said.

A new coalition of commercial real estate interests is urging the government and Congress to act quickly to revive CRE lending and help speed up the economic recovery.

Helm, a founding partner of the Spring, Texas-based firm, replaces Ken Austin, who is leaving the company to pursue personal interests, a company statement said.

Nissan Canada began marketing a new C$660 million ($665 million) auto loan securitization deal this week, NIF-T 2010-1.

Arguing that regulators are not likely to correctly predict the next crisis, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday that banks must hold more capital and face higher collateral requirements.

Worthington Industries said it is planning an offering of $150 million senior notes due 2020.

Investors selected Prudential Fixed Income to serve as replacement manager for two CLOs: GSC European CDO III SA and GSC European CDO IV SA.