ABS

Baker & McKenzie advised Citi Microfinance on its five year contract with AT Microloans I, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACCION Texas, to buy up to $30 million in microenterprise loans, a first for the U.S. microfinance industry.

Lehman Brothers heads of mortgage origination and securitization are leaving the firm, according to published news reports.

Standard & Poor's yesterday lowered its ratings on 49 tranches from 11 U.S. cash flow and hybrid CDO deals.

Mortgage rates were mostly lower this week according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) appointed Michael Paese as executive vice president, global advocacy, with responsibility for association's global legal, governmental, and legislative affairs and advocacy initiatives.

DebtX sold more than $292 million in nonperforming residential real estate loans. The portfolio will be offered in 19 separate pools and will bid on Sept. 18.

As the GSEs struggle to preserve capital and indicate that they are not likely to be growing their portfolios, the Federal Home Loan Banks' (FHLB) agency portfolio growth has remained strong, Lehman Brothers said in a recent report.

GSI Securitization acquired ARGYLE Solutions, which is a technology-driven healthcare revenue cycle management firm.

Production of Federal Housing Administration jumbo mortgages continues to ramp up, and Ginnie Mae officials say they expect to guarantee another $1.9 billion in FHA jumbo mortgage-backed securities in August, up from $1.5 billion in July.

Wachovia Corp. will buy back more than $8.5 billion of auction-rate securities as part of an agreement to end investigations by state regulators into the marketing of the complex securities.

Capital One Financial Corp. disclosed Friday that loan-loss ratios for credit cards improved in July from the second quarter but that delinquencies continued to rise.

Student lender First Marblehead Corp. said Goldman Sachs completed a $132.7 million cash investment in the company as co-founder Daniel Meyers will return to lead the firm.

U.S. CMBS delinquencies rose two basis points in July, ending the month at 0.43%, as reported by the Fitch Ratings Loan Delinquency Index.

Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings, a New York-based real estate investment trust, has reported a net loss of $22.9 million ($2.66 per share) for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $11.4 million ($1.42 per share) a year earlier.

NovaStar Financial, Kansas City, Mo., has acquired a majority interest in PipeFire, a residential appraisal management firm headquartered in Indianapolis.

Wachovia Securities and Wachovia Capital Markets would buy back or provide liquidity for up to $9 billion of auction rate securities and would pay $50 million in fines to Missouri and other states that investigated the firm’s ARS sales practices, under a preliminary settlement reached with federal and state regulators.

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

In May, the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration proposed new rules that restrict the pricing and collection of credit card accounts. More recently, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) that would rein in common credit card practices.

Given the challenging structured finance market conditions and an uncertain economic outlook, mortgage servicing is in hot demand, especially among investors looking for loss mitigation in distressed mortgage assets.

With the monoline industry continuing to struggle for survival, albeit with a weak pulse, and the ABS CDO sector almost flatlining, CDO hedge agreements with the monoline industry have been a cause for concern within the structured finance market.