ABS

Colorado-based W.J. Bradley Co. appointed Roy Browning as its new chief financial officer.

CIT Group said Monday it has named Alexander Mason its president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.

The managers of two Bear Stearns hedge funds that collapsed late last year could be charged in a criminal indictment led by federal prosecutors.

Two FBR Investment Management analysts are leaving the firm to start their own mortgage fund.

Marcus Schuler has joined Markit as managing director in sales and marketing. He will be based in London.

Moody’s Analytics has added fixed-income news from Dow Jones to its credit quotes live portal.

Foley & Lardner has hired Timothy Crisp as partner in the business law department in its Madison office.

GMAC Financial Services has hired Rajinder (Raj) Singh to the newly created role of chief credit risk officer.

Funding giant U.K. mortgages via the securitization market is likely a thing of the past because the market won't prove as profitable, said industry players speaking at a panel on covered bonds at the Information Management Network's and European Securitization Forum's Global ABS conference in Cannes this month.

Banks choosing against renewing liquidity facilities should have no impact on the credit quality of European CMBS transactions, analysts said.

Last year, Mexican state agency Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF)was on track to cut off direct funding of mortgage origination for nonbank entities known as Sofols by the end of 2009.

The recent downgrade of U.K. mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has resulted in the breach of some triggers of its Aire Valley securitization master trust. The negative rating action could threaten certain replenishing or management provisions of the RMBS master trust.

There is evidence of correlation in the state of the wholesale vehicle market and annualized net loss (ANL) rates in auto loan asset-backed securities (ABS). Fitch Ratings recently assessed between how wholesale vehicle values affect recoveries of defaulted auto loans, and concluded that the values in turn impact loss severity and, ultimately, loss rates in auto ABS, thus creating an inverse relationship between wholesale vehicle values and ANL rates in auto ABS - as wholesale vehicle values rise, ANL rates invariably fall and vice versa.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's (SIFMA) credit rating agency task force expressed concern regarding the implications of a proposal presented by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week at an open meeting hosted by the commission.

Although the European securitization market might not have seen the worst yet from the credit crisis, insurers who focus on instances of catastrophe are making strides.

The Information Management Network (IMN) and the European Securitization Forum (ESF) held a poll last week asking European market participants where to host the next Global ABS conference.

HELOC lenders are beginning to limit or freeze HELOC credit lines, according to analysts.

As the Alt-A mortgage market falters, Wall Street firms are reviving an old concept to repackage triple-A bonds that may soon fall from grace. This is an effort to avert sell-offs by investors or potentially spruce up their own holdings as they search for buyers.

Babson Capital Europe appointed Andrew Godson as head of distribution. Godson will be responsible for Babson Capital Europe's global sales and distribution activities as well as distributing Babson Capital Management products to European investors. He reports to Ian Hazelton, chief executive of Babson Capital Europe. Godson was previously at Citigroup, where he ran the CDO syndicate and structured credit in Europe. Before Citi, Godson spent three years working in the securitization group at Nomura, where he focused on CDO structuring and esoteric ABS.

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