ABS

The New York Federal Reserve rejected five while accepting 46 bonds for the January Legacy CMBS TALF subscription period.

Nixon Peabody expanded its securitization and structured finance group as well as its corporate trust team.

Hannover Re boosted its "K6" catastrophe bond transaction, which was launched in 2009, by the maximum targeted amount of $152 million.

Bank of America is the first mortgage servicer to sign an agreement formally committing to participation in the pending second-lien component of the federal government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Mortgage application activity declined 10.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Jan. 22 despite mortgage rates dipping to 4.99% from 5.06% based on Freddie Mac's survey.

Investment management firm Babson Capital Management has been selected by the controlling class of investors to serve as successor collateral manager of two CDOs previously managed by Tricadia Loan Management.

MGIC Investment Corp., the largest mortgage insurer in the nation, lost $280 million in the fourth quarter, its tenth straight quarterly loss.

BMW priced its auto-backed ABS transaction yesterday. Around 50 investors placed €2.2 billion orders for the €742m A Class notes of the car company's auto ABS Bavarian Sky 2, according to published reports.

Matthew Lindsay joined the banking team at Wedlake Bell as a partner. Lindsay was previously partner and head of real estate finance at Mishcon de Reya.

Home prices fell 0.2% in November on a seasonally adjusted basis after leveling off in October, suggesting the housing market has lost momentum and values could decline over the winter months, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city price index.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) expressed its approval of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s (FDIC) reported plan to securitize around $36 billion of failed bank assets. This is in an effort to support the restart of the securitization industry.

Corporate credit quality has improved over the last year as company managers have responded to economic pressures to better their companies’ fundamentals, but great global economic risks remain, according to a report released today by research firm Gimme Credit.

Standard & Poor's Fixed Income Risk Management Services (FIRMS) launched a new valuation and risk strategies group.

Crown Mortgage Management said Eric Stoclet will take over as the its CEO effective Feb. 1, following the departure of Steve Haggerty who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

Delinquencies rose at the slowest pace in a long time with all the indices experiencing less than a 0.3 point rise in 60+ day delinquencies.

Allen & Overy appointed two new senior counsel in the New York office. David Lucking works in the international capital markets group while Bernd Bohr works in the corporate group. Both are residents in the New York office.

UBS Investment Bank appointed Neal Shear as global head of securities. He will be based in Stamford.

John Olert, group managing director at Fitch Ratings, has been named chief credit officer. Olert has had a 15-year stint at the rating agency and previously headed or co-headed a variety of rating groups within Fitch, including U.S. corporates and U.S. financial institutions.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has approved a new policy stating its position for improving the nation's housing finance system, a stance that calls for continued government backing of a secondary mortgage market.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) will have Michael S. Barr, the assistant secretary for financial institutions at the U.S. Department of Treasury, as featured speaker at the upcoming ASF 2010. Barr will give his speech on Feb. 1.