ABS

Two Term ABS Loan Facility (TALF) investments were approved at a Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System (SCERS) board meeting this week, said Jeff States, CIO with the $4 billion plan.

PF2 Securities Evaluations, a provider of CDO security evaluations and analytics, hired Ilona Roze as a legal associate.

The Rhode Island Student Loan Authority is in the market with a $25 million ABS deal backed by private student loans.

U.S. Secretary of Education Anne Duncan announced that four companies were awarded contracts to service a portion of the approximately $550 billion outstanding federal student loan portfolio held by the Department of Education (DOE).

There was a very slight decrease in the amount of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding between the end of the fourth quarter 2008 and the end of the first quarter of 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Lending volumes appear to be stabilizing in the United Kingdom, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), London.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) said the financial reform plan proposed by President Obama is flawed because it attempts to tie mortgage broker compensation to the long-term performance of securitized loans.

Fitch Ratings yesterday withdrew the ‘CAM2’CDO asset manager rating assigned to Capmark Investments as a manager of CDOs backed by commercial real estate.

Fitch Ratings launched a new cash flow model for reviewing its portfolio of tobacco settlement ABS transactions, according to a release from the agency.

The annual Asset Securitization Forum (ASF) organizational update, held yesterday, focused on the current state of the securitization market as well as the impact of new government initiatives on the sector.

After surging 77 basis points in the previous three weeks, 30-year fixed mortgage rates finally eased off by 21 basis points to 5.38% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 18, Freddie Mac reported today.

The Federal Reserve's purchases of MBS are affecting the supply-demand balance of MBS collateral in the repurchase markets, according to a Barclays Capital report.

Performance deterioration seen in CMBS and multifamily transactions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the first quarter is expected to continue, Moody's Investors Service said in a report Wednesday, citing upcoming refinancing risks.

Jefferies & Co. Wednesday became the first firm in more than three years designated as one of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's primary dealers.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) is set to move out of its midtown Manhattan headquarters to the Financial District, as announced in an ASF update meeting today.

Mortgage application activity declined in the week ending June 12 as mortgage rates surged.

The European Central Counterparty (EuroCCP) called today for the adoption of a single standard convention on interoperability that all central counterparties (CCPs) would sign so that European market participants could seamlessly choose where their trades will be cleared and settled.

Financial advisory firm Capital Market Risk Advisors (CMRA) hired Peter Niculescu as partner and head of fixed income.

The Bank of England (BoE) is considering establishing a Secured Commercial Paper Facility (SCP) to buy appropriate ABCP as well as creating a specific Supply Chain Finance Facility.

The Department of the Treasury’s announcement on the new securitization regulation shouldn’t come as a surprise. Although most ABS players believe the market will return to some level of normalcy, it's widely understood that the game would be played according to new standards.