ABS

CWCapital Investments (CWCI) announced the hire of Hugh Hall as managing director. Hall was a founder of Gramercy Capital Corp. and served as chief operating officer until its merger with American Financial Realty Trust in April 2008. He began his career at career at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft and Credit Suisse, and has over fourteen years of experience in the commercial mortgage industry.

The dramatic reversal of fortune for commodity exporters, induced by a plunge in prices and the global liquidity crunch, has altered the terms of financing for a sector that benefited handsomely from the market trends of the last several years.

The European Commission (EC) disclosed its proposal for regulating credit rating agencies, following calls for regulatory oversight of these companies.

Moody's Investors Service's recent lowering of Ambac and MBIAs' ratings to 'Baa1' spurred a massive flow of downgrades.

Bank of America Corp.'s plan to modify 400,000 mortgages is proving to be more complicated than expected - and not only because there are third-party investors involved.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last Wednesday delayed a resolution on adopting rules that related to the regulation of credit rating agencies. The Commission will return to the issue on Dec. 3.

The President and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) Philip Day wrote Margaret Spellings, U.S. Department of Education (ED) secretary, and Henry Paulson, head of the Department of the Treasury, last week. In his letter, Day welcomed the recent government announcement that suggested a change in the focus of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to assist FFELP student loan issuers.

In a down market, only the fittest survive. With financial guarantors facing downgrades and insolvency, Assured Guaranty is pooling its resources with the only other triple-A rated monoline, Financial Security Assurance (FSA).

With November fast approaching December and the end of 2008, ABS market participants have all but written off new issuance activity until at least January.

Weak economic conditions have put capital strains on trust preferred securities (TruPS) issuers, causing a rise in payment deferrals and defaults within pools of these assets, TruPS CDOs.

Even in the current Era of Large Numbers, the third quarter "earnings" reports for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were shockingly bad.

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

Babson Capital Management announced a series of promotions today.

Ramesh Singh, head of real estate and securitized (RE&S) products. is departing

Syncora Holdings announced the appointment of Duncan Hennes, Edward Muhl, Thomas Norsworthy, and Robert White to its board of directors in connection with the transfer on Nov. 18 of 30,069,049 Syncora shares, previously owned by XL Capital , to a Trust pursuant to the Master Commutation Release and Restructuring Agreement, dated July 28, 2008.

The Department of Education (ED) announced it will purchase Stafford/PLUS FFELP loans for the 2007-2008 academic year at a purchase price of 97% of principal and unpaid interest.

GMAC Financial Services, which controls nearly $400 billion in mortgage servicing rights, has applied with the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company.

Ambac Financial Group said yesterday that it has commuted two CDO of CDO of ABS exposures and two high grade CDO of ABS exposures.

The prosecutor named to monitor the $700 billion bailout program said Wednesday that the Treasury Department's retreat from the program's original mission would not hurt his authority.

Standard & Poor's said will release the names of the providers of rating-dependent liquidity and credit support to ABCP conduits.