ABS

As expected, John Courson has taken over as the president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) as of Jan. 1.

The Treasury Department used its asset guarantee authority in taking a second-loss position in a $308 billion pool of mortgages to help stabilize Citicorp. But going forward it expects to use asset guarantees "sparingly," it said in a report to Congress.

KBC group said in a press release last week that it expected its full-year net earning to fall by €900 million ($1.2 billion). This is a result of further downgrades by Moody’s Investors Service made on a range of CDOs held by the group.

Real estate economists Michael Sklarz and Norm Miller, co-founders of Collateral Intelligence, say the widely followed Case-Shiller home price index has exaggerated home price declines for most homeowners.

Fannie Mae bought just $29.65 billion in mortgages from its seller/servicers in November, its worst purchase month of the year.

After more than a week of speculation, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced a nearly $14 billion deal Friday to sell failed IndyMac Federal Bank to a private-equity consortium led by the head of Dune Capital Management.

Manager Activity: AutosFull Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market

The European securitization market looks set to keep on the same track it traveled throughout 2008. Government-sponsored programs are at the forefront of primary activity going into 2009.

Mortgage-backed volume in the last two weeks of December averaged less than 70% of the 30-day average. Heading into the Christmas holidays, mortgages widened substantially on nearly $4 billion in originator selling - consisting of about 75% 4.5s and 25% 4s.

It is safe to say that securitization professionals will not miss 2008, and market participants fear that 2009 does not look much brighter.

The current ABS market is reminiscent of an earlier one where issuance came from traditional sectors such as autos, credit cards and student loans.

In the original version of the home-valuation standards that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed to adopt under a March deal with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, lenders faced sweeping change, including a requirement that they divest themselves of appraisal-management subsidiaries.

As a great songwriter once wrote, "the times they are a-changin'..." For the first time since its inception in the early 1990's, the United States CMBS market and CMBS servicer capabilities are being tested by the very economic stress that was the impetus for the creation of the CMBS market.

Combing the market for unambiguously good news these days often feels like running tap water through a sieve in the hope of trapping gold.

Although mortgage portfolios are going for bargain-basement prices, investors are still shying away from them.

GMAC said Wednesday that it had completed a debt-exchange offer as part of becoming a bank holding company, though just 59% of bondholders took part in the offering, less than the 75% the company had said it needed to achieve its capital goal.

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that it will be starting its program to buy MBS in early January, according to a Dow Jones report.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) just announced the membership of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG).

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced Monday it would freeze salaries for its nearly 670 associates, according to Law.com. The law firm cited the current challenging business environment.

The Treasury Department announced Monday evening it has given GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp. (GM), $6 billion in support from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).