ABS

New York-based Cohen & Co. has hired veteran fixed income sales executive David Clifford as its national sales manager for fixed income.

Overseas investors and banks are expected to be key new buyers of agency MBS once the Federal Reserve ends its purchase program, Barclays Capital analysts said.

CB Richard Ellis Loan Servicing, (CBRELS), the special servicer for the U.K. CMBS White Tower Plc, series 2006-3, announced the sale of eight of the nine properties backing the ₤1.15 billion ($1.74 billion) securitized loan.

European Risk Capital hired David Cain as the group executive advisor. In his new position, his primary responsibility is for non-bank financials and real estate.

Deloitte appointed Guy Langford to lead the distressed asset and debt practice in the U.S. effective immediately.

Spanish RMBS mortgage arrears began reversing the trend of a rapid increase in arrears that has been seen over the last two years. In the last quarter, the volume of loans falling into arrears actually decreased, according to Fitch Ratings.

Securitizers would have to retain at least 5% of the credit risk with some exceptions for loans that meet certain regulatory standards, according to a bill introduced by Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

Roger Rosendahl joined DLA Piper’s corporate and finance practices as a partner in the New York and Los Angeles offices.

Feri EuroRating Services and LACE Financial Corp. have created a joint sales cooperation venture designed to allow each organization to offer additional research and ratings products to its customers.

The European ABS primary market currently has two new issues in the pipeline.

Standard & Poor's lowered its ratings on 29 tranches from nine U.S. CDO of ABS deals as well as removed 12 of these ratings from CreditWatch negative.

It was a productive year for special servicers in 2009, but there's a lot more where that came from, according to a new Fitch Ratings report.

Milestone Merchant Partners is now officially offering for sale a $20 billion package of residential servicing rights on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The offering has been rumored for several weeks.

CQS hired Jason Walker and Jessica Hadad. Walker will serve as portfolio manager for the CQS ABS Fund, focusing on European RMBS and global CMBS. Hadad joins as an ABS analyst concentrating on due diligence.

Moody's Investors Service has placed 40 RMBS re-securitization tranches with a current outstanding balance of $500 million on watch for possible downgrade.

The Obama administration's reluctance to put forth a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only increases the chance that the GSEs will become permanent arms of government.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is dusting off yet another tactic originated during the savings and loan crisis for dealing with its current failure load.

Over the past month, foreclosure-to-REO (F2R) transition rates rose significantly across sectors and vintages and in the negative amortization and Alt-B space, Barclays Capital analysts said. This is the second month it increased.

DebtX launched availability of DXMarket Datasm, a new information service that offers loan buyers with more analysis and insight about transactions executed at www.debtx.com.

LyondellBasell is looking to raise $3.25 billion in exit financing, the Houston-based company said late Thursday. The package will include both junk bonds and a senior term loan facility.