ABS

Credit Agricole S.A. and Societe Generale signed a final agreement today to combine their asset management operations, according to a press release.

Morgan Stanley plans to repackage a downgraded collateralized debt obligation backed by leveraged loans into new securities with AAA ratings.

The Joint Economic Committee, headed by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, held a hearing on commercial real estate challenges called Commercial Real Estate: Do Rising Defaults Pose Systematic Threat?

BTIG continues to expand its fixed-income group, adding four to its sales and analyst teams, the firm said today.

Fitch Ratings has today updated its originator review criteria for European RMBS deals to acknowledge the key role that originators play in influencing the performance of residential mortgage portfolios.

Mortgage rates fell for the second week in a row according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped 12 basis points to 5.20% with an average 0.7 point, and in the past two weeks is down 22 basis points.

Grant & Eisenhofer filed a lawsuit this week against Highland Capital and two of its hedge funds on behalf of institutional and individual investors, according to a Grant & Eisenhofer release.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in a joint statement with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), announced today the launch of the Legacy Securities Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), which is part of the government’s Legacy Securities Program.

Investment grade European CLO tranches will not suffer losses, according to Fitch Ratings, which is true if the agency’s average default and base case recovery assumptions occur.

Philadelphia-based law firm Cozen O’Connor has reorganized existing businesses to create a capital markets group, according to a release from the firm.

Fiserv Inc. is updating its Loan Servicing Platform to make it more fully compatible with recent guidelines from the U.S. Treasury Department on home loan modifications.

Mortgage fraud-related Suspicious Activity Reports referred to law enforcement increased 36% to 63,713 during 2008, compared to 46,717 reports in 2007, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2008 Mortgage Fraud Report.

CB Richard Ellis Investors has hired Audrey Greenberg as the chief financial officer for the Strategic Partners U.S. fund series. She will oversee investor relations, accounting and reporting, treasury operations and enterprise reporting, as well as involvement in fund financing activities.

State Street Bank and Trust, the trustee of Cheyne CLO Investments, said it suspended the use of the loan fund’s collateral account to meet a shortfall in payments due to noteholders.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York named RBC Capital Markets the second new primary dealer in 2009, as reported in an RBC release. The designation will be effective today.

Mortgage application activity increased last week with both refinancing and purchase activity moving higher.

After peaking at $11.5 billion last month, requests for loans through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) dropped to $5.4 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday.

The merger of two government-sponsored enterprise regulators to form the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a year ago this month — offers a cautionary tale as policymakers consider combining banking agencies and creating a new consumer protection supervisor.

CarMax priced a $489 million Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF)-eligible auto deal. JPMorgan Securities is lead manager on the offering.

The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision ordered First Marblehead Corp. on July 2 to reduce its concentration of private student loans, according to published reports.