ABS

Year to date as of 08/16 Term (days) 08/10 08/11 08/12 08/13 08/16 1-week

The Securities and Exchange Commission delivered a blistering report Tuesday that detailed the shortcomings of Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's when it came to rating RMBS and CDOs.

IndyMac is abandoning its forward mortgage origination business and focusing on Financial Freedom, its reverse mortgage unit, according to published reports.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) has updated its Streamlined Foreclosure and Loss Avoidance Framework for Securitized Subprime Adjustable Rate Mortgage Loans as described in the association's release today.

GFI Group has named Scott Wilson as head of structured credit products and Jim Higgins head of North American credit brokerage , according to today’s company release.

June CPRs were slower than the negative 3% to negative 4% that was expected. Instead, speeds declined 10% on average for Fannie Mae, 13% for Freddie Mac, and 8% for Ginnie Mae securities.

Fitch Ratings launched its issuer report grades (IRGs) for European ABCP conduits. The grades indicate the quality of post-issuance performance reports for the European ABCP conduits publicly rated by the rating agency.

Impac Mortgage Holdings has restructured its repurchase agreement financing facility with UBS Real Estate Securities, according to today’s Impac release.

Radian Group has appointed Teresa Bryce as president of Radian Guaranty, the company’s mortgage insurance subsidiary, according to a release from the company.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the American Securitization Forum (ASF) and the European Securitization Forum (ESF) have formed a global working group with the intention of restoring confidence in the securitization markets.

Germany has set new regulations for residential mortgage book sales to third parties. The law referred to in German as "Risikobegrenzungsgesetz" is expected to lead to a longer workout process for German residential mortgage loans.

Over the past two years, the Islamic securitization market has grown dramatically, although its growth faces serious roadblocks if the legal issues surrounding how to achieve a true sale are not clarified.

The RMBS market reported another paltry quarter, wrapping up a dismal first half for new issuance despite both local and Federal loss-mitigation initiatives.

The world's largest primary silver producer, Industrias Penoles, announced last week that it had pre-paid a 12-year structured bond issued in 1997 for $380 million. The Mexican company retired the issue using funds from a two-tranche syndicated loan in dollars and pesos.

A New Legislative Regime for U.K. Covered Bonds

The amendment of the legal framework for French SPVs is expected to significantly impact the structuring landscape of French securitizations, making transactions backed by higher yields - from the easier to the more complex - less difficult to structure.

Despite a steadier pace of issuance in the second quarter for the consumer ABS market, the first half of 2008 finished significantly behind last year's totals.

CLOs continued to squeak out new issuance in the second quarter, making them the only corner of the U.S. CDO market to do so. The good news is that, of the new CLO deals to hit the market, several were structured from fresh loan assets - rather than from balance sheet assets, which have thus far represented most 2008 CLO issuance.

Fitch Ratings released proposed indicators and ratings that it believes should add value to existing structured finance ratings.

Last week nine European trade groups released 10 industry initiatives to make the securitization market more transparent. The move follows the European Council of Finance Ministers' (Ecofin) call in its October 2007 roadmap to "enhance transparency for investor, markets and regulators" by mid-2008.