ABS

Lebanese bank BSEC last week announced the funding of a second auto loan ABS for local dealership Bassoul & Heneine.

TriMas Corp. entered into a new accounts receivable facility with Wachovia Bank. The new facility, which has a three-year term, provides committed funding of up to $75 million.

MF Global Holdings, which offers customized solutions in global cash, derivatives and related markets, said that MF Global, the parent company of all MF Global companies, moved its corporate quarters from Bermuda to Delaware and changed its name to MF Global Holdings.

Figures reported by reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Co. point to a healthy recovery in the catastrophe bond sector in 2009. The sector saw volumes increase by 25% over 2008.

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

As is often the case when looking into the future, we have some good news and some bad news regarding the leveraged loan market in 2010. The bad news, though hardly a surprise, comes in the form of returns - much lower ones. The good news is the expectation that primary issuance will jump, with some market participants portending the return of the CLO.

As 2009 began, the government was scrambling to put together programs to keep financial institutions afloat, provide liquidity to the frozen credit markets, keep people in their homes and develop stimulus packages to prevent the economy from sinking into a depression.

As of the holidays, a hefty CDO was in the Brazilian market and drawing substantial interest, sources said.

Moving in synch with regulators from other countries, Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) has taken measures to boost transparency in the housing finance markets. In addition, the capital-markets regulator may soon push ahead on measures that are on the agenda elsewhere, such as retention requirements.

The RMBS downturn in Mexico, most acute among nonbank originators, has put sector regulator Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF) on war footing.

In 2009, the ABS market came back from the brink. Because of extensive government support in the U.S. and across the pond, issuers and investors emerged from hiding and started doing deals again. But this nascent activity was all premised on the fact that the government was serving as the securitization market's backstop.

The U.S. economy and housing market have stabilized, leading to a rally in some sectors of ABS and MBS.

With financial reform bills that already surpass the 1,000-page mark, it would be hard to imagine any subject left untouched by the effort on Capitol Hill to overhaul financial services.

Reports about the death of CMBS have been exaggerated, it appears. Following a year of inactivity, issuance from three single-borrower CMBS deals has hiked up expectations for the sector heading into 2010.

Much of the blame for the housing bubble and the subsequent recession has been attributed to the growth in subprime lending between 2002 and 2007. However, a simultaneous development of broader importance was the steady relaxation of affordability standards, which allowed prospective home buyers to qualify for increasingly large loans.In concert with the growth in the subprime market, lenders' tinkering with time-honored underwriting metrics eventually linked the two sectors in a massive feedback loop that distorted both real estate prices and the mortgage markets.

Since mid-2007, the European securitization primary markets have been living in a state of suspended animation.

With the safe harbor from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF) in place until March, there are near-term positive expectations for the ABS market going into the New Year, market sources said.

WorldVest will launch WorldVest Brasil Finance FIDC or the WVB Finance FIDC as its first investment vehicle to participate in the Brazilian consumer finance market.

The mortgage loan modification scheme launched on Dec. 18 by the Italian Banking Association (ABI) could have a negative impact on Italian RMBS ratings if issuers implement it without correcting for potential distortions which could affect standard RMBS structural features, said Fitch Ratings.

The Fire and Police Pension Association (FPPA) of Colorado has added a new investment to its portfolio.