ABS

Mortgage application activity jumped nearly 13% in response to a decline in mortgage rates to below 5%.

Valuation and advisory company Vertical Capital Solutions (VCAP Solutions) hired Jason Howell as partner.

Final bids are due later this week on a $1 billion portfolio of mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to Franklin Bank of Houston, Texas.

The chairman of a key subcommittee is predicting that the House of Representatives will pass a regulatory reform bill this year, including new standards for securitizing mortgages and other assets.

Infusion Technologies, parent firm of National Quick Sale and REO Sentinel, hired Jim Satterwhite, a participant in the mortgage servicing industry, as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Asset management firm Schroders expanded its fixed income group by adding Dina Welch as a senior client portfolio manager, the firm announced today.

Market reports indicate that Avis Budget Group is offering to sell $300 million of U.S. ABS backed by auto rentals to investors.

Oak Hill Advisors hired Alexandra Jung as co-head of the firm’s European business.

Alba 2006-2 and 2007-1 informed the trustee that there could be an event of default on the transactions via an Irish Stock Exchange announcement. As a result, Fitch Ratings placed all 17 tranches from both deals on rating watch negative.

Lloyds Banking Group released initial details of its RMBS offering from it Permanent master trust. The deal signals a possible reopening of the European RMBS market.

Wyndham Resort Development Corp. is in the market with a $175 million timeshare receivable transaction called Sierra Receivables Funding Co 2009-3.

Wholesale broker firm Hoare Capital has made hires for its specialist credit team before its possible move to new offices in Mayfair, London.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) closed two subsidiaries of a $3.2 billion-asset banking company in Indiana on Friday, bringing the year's bank failure total to 94.

The mortgage insurance division of Genworth Financial has created three new senior management positions, filling the posts with current executives.

In a recent report, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts focused on the impact of the House of Representatives passing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (SAFRA or HR 3221) by a vote of 253 to 171.

JCR Capital established a new loan restructuring unit to add to its balance sheet investment business.

Prices of commercial real estate like office buildings, malls and hotels fell further in July, according to a measure published by Moody’s Investors Service on Monday.

At the American Securitization Forum (ASF) Sunset Seminar held last Wednesday, speakers were predicting the death of securitization because of the implementation of the Financial Accounting Standard Board’s (FASB) Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) No. 166, Accounting for Transfers of Financial Assets, an Amendment of FASB Statement No 140 and FAS No. 167, Amendments to FASB Interpretation No. 46.

Fitch Ratings hired James Simeons as a senior directorfor ABS business development in the EMEA region.

Month-to-date gross agency MBS issuance totals $90 billion. Ginnie Mae issuance represents 40%, Fannie Mae 38%, and Freddie Mac 22%.