ABS

NewOak Capital has hired William Denton as managing director, head of client development.

The Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds last week saw four presentations on behalf of AllianceBernstein, Invesco’s W.L. Ross & Co., Marathon Asset Management and Wellington Management Co., according to market reports. These asset managers all looking to manage part or all of the state’s $200 million Public-Private Investment fund.

MBS market participants continue to grapple with is what the Federal Reserve plans to do regarding its MBS purchase program.

A continuing rise in negative home equity and unemployment has led to rating actions on 581 prime RMBS transactions issued between 2005 and 2008, Fitch Ratings said.

Final bids are due next week on a $1.7 billion portfolio of non-performing second liens, according to a senior executive who's involved in the auction.

Mountain Funding has promoted Arthur Nevid to be its chief investment and spearhead the national real estate investment company's plans to acquire $1 billion of distressed real estate debt portfolios over the next two to three years.

Standard & Poor's published refined methodologies and assumptions for rating RMBS deals that are backed by prime, Alt- A, and subprime mortgages.

Lending through the Federal Reserve Board's discount window fell nearly 2% during the past week, to $106.4 billion.

Law firm Nixon Peabody is boosting its distressed investing and trading team by adding two seasoned associates, Patrick Maschio and Roberto Ristorucci. The new hires will be based in the New York City office.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) entered into the debate over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Thursday, blistering some of the most widely discussed options for revamping the government-sponsored enterprises.

Fitch Ratings published its criteria for rating securitizations of residential mortgage servicer advance receivables. The sector has seen a slow rise in new issuance in recent months.

Ginnie Mae set a record in its issuance of MBS backed by reverse mortgages in August.

For years, issuers strove to make their credit cards "top of wallet" — the first one a consumer pulled out when making a purchase. Today, these lenders are jockeying for a different prize: whatever's left in the wallet.

In the most prominent sign yet that policymakers are creating an exit strategy for government intervention in the banking business, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) on Wednesday set in motion the end of its debt guarantee plan.

The marked decline in the U.K. residential mortgage prepayment rate over the past 18 months is unlikely to negatively impact the ratings of the RMBS issued from the 12 U.K. prime master trust programs rated by Fitch Ratings.

Dechert hired Matthew K. Kerfoot as a counsel in the financial services group. Kerfoot, who will be based at the firm's New York office, was most recently senior vice president on HSBC’s global structured fund products desk.

Riccardo Agostinelli joined Latham & Watkins as a partner in the finance department at the firm's office in Milan.

For the week ending Sept. 10, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 5.07% with an average 0.7 point, down one basis point from last week's average, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

Michael Nierenberg, head of global mortgages & securitized products at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, announced that Michael J. Mazzei will join the company as managing director and head of commercial real estate debt capital markets. Based in New York, Mazzei will report to Nierenberg.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal hired Dennis M. Cariello, formerly deputy general counsel for postsecondary education and regulatory services at the U.S. Department of Education.