ABS

Moody's Investors Service in its latest index report for U.K. nonconforming mortgages said that, over the coming quarters, two factors will drive deliquency levels up: 1) borrowers who are coming off of their fixed interest mortgage rate period and experiencing payment shock and 2) the lack of refinancing options.

Babson Capital Europe appointed Andrew Godson as head of distribution.

Kevin Kanouff has resigned from his position as president of Clayton Fixed Income Services, which is the Denver-based subsidiary of data analysis provider Clayton Holdings. His resignation is effective in two weeks.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey added to the negative news for the housing market.

At a time when most large investment banks are slashing their fixed-income teams, Cantor Fitzgerald is making a hiring push in its debt capital markets group. Shawn Matthews, who heads the group and is based in New York, runs a sales and trading desk that already boasts more than 200 salesmen and traders. Bank Loan Report sat down with Matthews recently to discuss the group's expansion.

As the market nears the one-year anniversary of the current credit crunch, many industry participants have gotten past the initial phase of shock and have refocused their attention on learning from past mistakes.

Securitization is not going away any time soon despite the market storm that has rocked global credit markets, according to Jose Manuel Gonzalez Paramo, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) executive board, who says the reselling of debt such as mortgage loans and credit cards is still a valid business model.

Often associated with energy and corporate lending more than housing, Russia's Gazprombank nonetheless has a sizable mortgage book ($1.9 billion), and three RMBS deals under its belt for a total RUR15.8 billion ($666 million). The issuer is also a pioneer of sorts, having been the first Russian originator to place a deal under Russian RMBS legislation in December 2006. Gazprombank's last RMBS was in June, when it closed a mixed euro/ruble deal for a total RUR6.9 billion via Barclays Capital Markets and its own arranging unit. Not surprisingly, since then public borrowing has been limited to a one-year, and a three-year, unsecured loan closed last March for a total $450 million.

Turkish banks have been quiet on the securitization front since most of the monoline bond insurers stopped wrapping structured deals.

The European securitization investor psyche can be pretty hard to access given the limited opportunities they currently have. But as the market gears for a recovery, tailoring deals to the buyers' needs is the key to their success.

Tighter credit conditions have prompted some corporations to turn to conduits where they borrow by staking their receivables as assets, according to one market participant who said the CDO market is still subdued.

The impending summer slowdown is nothing new for the CDO market, which has already seen a slow pace of issuance for almost a year now.

There was no red carpet laid out for the thousands of industry players that made it out to the Palais des Festivals et Des Congress in Cannes, the new home of Information Management Network's and European Securitization Forum's (ESF) Global ABS conference.

Dan Castro has left GSC Group for Huxley Capital Management, a start-up private equity company/hedge fund, where he will be chief risk officer. In his new position, Castro will be working alongside founders Bryan Caisse and Dr. Chris Donegan.

Emerging markets at the Global ABS conference in Cannes took up a sliver of the schedule - in three and a half days of talks, only three panels were dedicated to EM, and two of those dealt exclusively with Russia.

Last week saw another round of light ABS issuance, which, after several weeks of steady issuance, had traders increasingly certain that the summer slump has begun to take effect.

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

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) closed its $1 billion securitization transaction backed by utility receivables that was managed by ABN AMRO Bank and Calyon Securities.

In one of the largest refinancings ever, GMAC said that it had completed a more than $60 billion rescue effort to improve the liquidity of its struggling subsidiary, mortgage lender Residential Capital.

Standard & Poor's today lowered its financial strength ratings on Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. to 'AA' from 'AAA' and placed the ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.