ABS

The American Securitization Forum's Project RESTART, an industry initiative to renew investor confidence in the mortgage and securitization markets, took several big steps forward in mid-July, including requesting comment on model RMBS representations and warranties.

With corporate acquisitions in 2009 about as plentiful as water in the Mojave Desert, intellectual property could prove to be not only the next fountain of deal flow for private-equity sponsors, but also a potential tool for helping their portfolio companies.

Foreclosures crept back to the forefront last month as the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would push for loan modifications.

The new issue calendar for the Aug. 6 TALF subscription is getting filled with $5.3 billion of eligible ABS announced from across the auto fleet, floorplan, credit card, equipment, and private credit student loan sectors.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., and 40 other congressmen are urging the Federal Reserve Board to extend its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to provide "essential support" for the commercial real estate mortgage market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is conducting its first legacy loan sale, which gives investors access to affordable financing to purchase a 50% stake in a pool of residential mortgages.

The Treasury Department has unveiled its loan modification insurance program to protect investors from declines in house prices.

Nixon Peabody has hired Keith Krasney and Peter Morreale as partners to lead the firm’s securitization and structured finance team. This is part of the firm’s ongoing expansion of its global finance practice.

The European Central Bank (ECB) bought €2.9 billion ($4.10 billion) worth of covered bonds in July - the first purchases under a plan to purchase €60 billion worth of covered bonds over the next year.

With FFELP student loan issuers having difficulty funding loans because of the current credit freeze, the Straight-A Funding student loan conduit was developed to provide a partial industry solution.

If the leverage finance market has a Mickey Rourke - the actor who wrestled his way back on top - it would probably be the CLO manager. CLOs have experienced a comeback recently, mainly because secondary prices have improved since the first quarter. But market participants believe that CLOs are still on the ropes, and will be for the rest of the year.

Traditional non-mortgage consumer assets continue to dominate U.S. ABCP conduit holdings while exposures to riskier assets have dropped well off their highs of the past two years. The falloff in exposure to assets such as RMBS and CDOs is not surprising, as many sponsors took proactive measures over the past two years to reduce, remove, or provide more support to certain exposures in an effort to allay investor concerns.

Following a spring that was on life support, Mexico's structured finance market sprang to life in late June and into July. A clutch of significant deals closed and more entered the pipeline.

Jones Day has hired Joel Telpner as a partner in its banking and finance practice. He will be based in the New York office.

Some securitization players are hanging their hopes of a market recovery on the Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF) and, perhaps even more, on the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP).

The U.S. government continues to reinforce its commitment to preserving the securitization market.

While both the real estate markets and mortgage credit performance have shown signs of bottoming out, the foreclosure picture remains grim. In its delinquency report for the first quarter of 2009, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that 3.85% of the loans in their population were in some form of foreclosure, and RealtyTrac notes that just under two million homes in the U.S. were in foreclosure as of June. Considering that the annualized rate of existing home sales in June was 4.8 million homes, the size of the foreclosure pipeline is astonishing.

The House, voting 237 to 185, approved legislation that is intended to better align executive compensation with performance.

Almost a year since the idea was first raised by policymakers as a solution to the credit crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. went forward Friday with a plan to auction off toxic assets from a failed bank.

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