ABS

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) plans to challenge a proposal that requires originators to have "skin in the game" when it testifies Thursday on Rep. Barney Frank's legislation to curb predatory lending practices.

The Treasury Department wants to move ahead with its Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) for toxic mortgage assets while it solicits public comment on a rule that would exempt the asset managers from federal compensation restrictions.

The Federal Reserve Board has no particular exit strategy in mind when it comes to leaving the MBS market once it reaches the $1.25 trillion net purchase goal it set for 2009, said former FRB governor Randall Kroszner.

Evolution Securities, a U.K. investment bank, has boosted its fixed-income business by appointing Alexander Lazanas and Rajan Dosanjh.

Markit appointed Neil McPherson to manage and expand its structured finance pricing services. as a Managing Director in New York

The U.K. Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) released data showing that the number of mortgage completions increased slightly in February.

PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company established to aggregate and provide industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data, appointed Luzi Hitz as chief executive officer.

Tim Houghton will be joining Cortland Capital Market Services on April 27 as managing director of new business development.

Peter Cotton was one of the architects at the heart of the CDO market but got out before the wheels came off the wagon. He left Morgan Stanley in 2007 to form venture-funded Julius Finance, a "model-fusion specialist" which promises "unprecedented visibility for market derived pricing and analytics" for the $58 trillion credit derivatives market.

Last Friday, student loan issuer Sallie Mae priced its second deal in 2009 from its SLM Student Loan Trust.

Bank of America is hiring thousands of new employees to keep up with surging residential originations even though its mortgage business posted a $500 million loss for the first quarter due to deteriorating loan performance.

The GMAC Bank unit of Residential Capital (ResCap) is expanding its mortgage warehouse lending operations, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed.

In a report, Fitch Ratings said that 21 newly delinquent assets led to a rise in U.S. commercial real estate loan (CREL) CDO delinquencies.

Fannie Mae veteran Michael Williams was appointed as chief executive of the GSE on Monday, making him the company’s third leader in less than a year.

Standard & Poor’s has fully integrated VantageScore into LEVELS 6.6, the rating agency's U.S. mortgage analytical model.

The U.K. government is expected to unveil a £50 billion ($73.4 billion) boost to the mortgage market. It aims to accomplish this goal by underwriting billions in MBS to help lenders fund new loans.

Independent specialist financial services consulting firm bfinance announced the results from its latest Pension Funds and Insurance Asset Allocation Survey conducted among European and North American institutional investors.

A survey conducted by the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers (IACPM) shows that credit investors believe credit spreads will widen along with the number of defaults.

Avenue Capital Group is looking to sell its division that oversees high yield bonds and leveraged loans within the next two months, according to a source familiar with the matter.

William Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recognized Saturday that investors have been hesitant to participate in the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) out of concern that borrowing money from the central bank might arouse scrutiny from Congress.