ABS

Freddie Mac reported a jump in fixed mortgage rates this week.

Credit Agricole launched the second Jumbo issue on the covered bond market this week. It marks the bank's debut in this arena.

The home building slump has resulted in a loss of more than three million jobs, according to an analysis by economists at the National Association of Home Builders.

CIFG Holding, the holding company for CIFG’s financial guaranty subsidiaries, said that it, along with its principal shareholders, Banque Populaire Group and Caisse d’Epargne Group, has reached a final settlement with credit default swap (CDS) counterparties and bondholders holding 98% of its gross par outstanding of ABS CDO exposures and certain specified CRE CDO exposures.

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbinsannounced that a class action lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of investors of MBS and ABS certificatesof JPMorgan Acceptance Corp.

Amherst Securities Group hired Blake Myers as a salesperson. Myers, who is based in Amherst’s New York City office, was formerly at UBS, where he was one of the investment bank’s MBS salespeople.

Standard & Poor’s had launched indices designed to reflect the performance of the U.S. credit default swamp market. The three indices include one that measures the performance of high yield corporate credits.

Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Spain to 'AA+' from 'AAA' because the current economic and financial market conditions have highlighted structural weaknesses in the Spanish economy that are inconsistent with a 'AAA' rating.

Thornburg Mortgage, which averted bankruptcy nearly a year ago, is once again racing against the clock to raise financing.

Oak Hill Advisors hired Christine Daley as managing director in its investment team focusing on the stressed and distressed credit markets.

Kondaur Capital Corp.completed 18 months of operation last December with the purchase of close to 2,000 distressed loans that month, reaching $378 million in unpaid balances.

The performance outlooks for ABS and RMBS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are Negative, said Moody's Investors Service in its review of 2008 and outlook for 2009 report.

Defaults on larger loans were again chiefly responsible for another increase in CMBS loan delinquencies, to 0.88%, according to Fitch Ratings.

MGIC Investment Corp. (MGIC) is not going to be profitable in 2009, the top executive at the Milwaukee-based mortgage insurer declared, even though its fourth quarter and full year results were improved over the previous year.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh expects to take additional writedowns on its $2.73 billion portfolio of private label mortgage-backed securities in the fourth quarter, a move that could make the GSE undercapitalized and endanger its shareholders — banks and thrifts primarily. In a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government sponsored enterprise admits that it will not complete an analysis of its private label holdings until late in the first quarter.

A National Association of Home Builder (NAHB) task force on housing finance has recommended that the politically powerful organization adopt a policy blueprint that calls for a sharing of the interest rate and credit risk by the private sector institutions which benefit from the government's secondary market support.

Intensifying troubles at Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup are spawning new questions about a possible need for further government support, even for the likes of Wells Fargo & Co., which is perceived by many on Wall Street to be in relatively sound shape.

Barclays Capital said that the U.K. property group Mapeley could be facing insolvency as early as April 2009 if current efforts to raise capital are unsuccessful.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been directed by their regulator to record — beginning in 2010 — identification numbers for loan officers, appraisers and others involved in originating mortgages they purchase in the secondary market.

The $825 billion economic stimulus package drafted by House Democratic leaders will restore the $729,750 GSE loan limit in high cost areas until year-end 2009.