ABS

Problems in the commercial real estate market overshadowed other signs of a recovery in financial markets, according to a Federal Reserve Board report released Wednesday.

Ronald Borod and Jonathan Black, who were recently hired as structured finance partners in DLA Piper's corporate and finance practice, are proposing a program that could supplement the government’s Public Private Investment Program (PPIP).

BTIG, an institutional broker dealer specializing in trading and related brokerage services, further expanded its global fixed income group with four new hires.

Westwood Capital and Westwood Capital Advisors hired John Ogle and Jasjit Singh to join their New York-based office as managing directors. The hires effectively expand the firm’s operations in fixed-income securities advisory, trading and management.

Barclays is offering to buy pieces of a CLO it arranged, which is managed by Lambda Finance, at a price as low as 20% of face value, according to Bloomberg.

Several top-rated CLOs managed by Invesco and Highland Capital Management saw their Aaa tranches downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday.

National home prices tracked monthly by Integrated Asset Services LLC's IAS360 House Price Index have ceased falling and stabilized for the first time in 10 months.

After almost a year of overweighting MBS beginning in late 2008, JPMorgan Securities analysts are now recommending moving to a neutral stance on the mortgage basis. There are a number of factors to this recommendation worth considering.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that the Obama administration will not propose empowering the Federal Reserve Board to take sole responsibility for handling systemic risk, saying that the job is too complex for just one agency.

A streak of bad news has left many observers wondering just how many hits the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle can take — and whether its business can recover.

Refinancing activity fell last week in response to higher mortgage rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association said the average contract rate for 30-year fixed rate mortgages jumped 32 basis points to 5.57%. In response, the Refinance Index declined 11.8% to 2605.7, while the refinancing share dropped to 59.4% of total applications from 62.4%. This is the lowest level for both since the latter part of November.

Advanta Bank terminated its cash tender offer for up to $1.4 billion of Advanta Business Card Master Trust’s Class A senior notes, indicating that the offer failed to satisfy a regulatory condition. The variables that were expected to impact the credit performance of the trust have not changed with the withdrawal of the tender offer.

Thanks to record low interest rates, residential lenders funded $466 billion in product during the first quarter, a 68% jump from the dismal fourth quarter, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News.

Last Friday, Banco Internacional del Peru (Interbank) priced a $121.2 million, seven-year deal backed by diversified payment rights (DPRs). The yield came to 425 basis points over three-month Libor. Deutsche Bank was the sole lead.

Cantor Fitzgerald and Piper Jaffray & Co. have expanded their debt capital markets groups with several hires. Lee Hetfield and Jason Kopcak have joined Cantor as co-heads of its whole loan sales and trading division, while Piper Jaffray has hired David Wirdnam as a debt advisor and Matt Traina as head of the firm’s coverage of west coast financial sponsors.

Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA) named Patrick Sargent as president of CMSA for the year June 2009 to June 2010.

Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan is urging HUD to require escrow accounts for tax and insurance on FHA-insured reverse mortgages while the banking regulators work on consumer protection guidelines.

Standard & Poor's Friday downgraded MBIA Inc.'s public finance subsidiary, National Public Finance Guaranty Corp., to A from AA-minus. The outlook is developing.

Banking companies have done a good job implementing a number of best practices in risk management, such as hiring chief risk officers and increasing board oversight, according to the sixth edition of Deloitte & Touche LLP's Global Risk Management Survey.

Ethan Klemperer joined Experian as the senior vice president and general manager of its capital markets business.