ABS

Mortgages rates were mostly lower this week, according to Freddie Mac. The largest declines were in the adjustable rate products.

As part of its effort to wind down much of its entire structured products portfolio, Merrill Lynch is shedding more of its staff in that area.

Moody's Investors Service has announced that it would be introducing two supplemental measures to its structured finance ratings aimed at enhancing their transparency and information content.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) said it supports the ongoing efforts to gain economic integration and regulatory convergence. Examples of such moves are ongoing efforts by the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) aimed at increased cross-border cooperation.

Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson says the bank plans to cut one third of its fixed-income staff and make a 10% reduction in corporate and investment bank support staff.

Amlin, Lloyd's largest insurers, plans to launch a new investment management partnership to be headed by John Wells and Luca Albertini. Both hires were previously with Swiss Re.

Denver-based The Chotin Group has announced changes in its management team. Effective today, Helen Dickens, president and chief operating officer assumes all responsibility for The Chotin Group’s asset management division. Dickens replaces Zach Pashel, who is leaving the company to pursue another opportunity.

Fremont General Corp. said Friday that it expects to file for bankruptcy protection, because it cannot file its financial information in a "realistic time frame" to obtain shareholder approval for the pending sale of some assets and deposits to CapitalSource.

Prudential Capital Group announced that Thomas Downey, Roger Finn, and David Scully have joined as vice presidents in its commercial asset finance unit, which is headquartered in Atlanta.

The U.S. government has recently been aggressively pursuing measures to help the beleaguered housing market. One measure that has been getting a lot of attention would allow Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to purchase mortgages greater than the conventional conforming loan limit, which is $417,000 according to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.

This week, Mexico's Credito Inmobiliario is likely to become the first originator to collateralize a pool of construction bridge loans since before Fitch Ratings reported on heightened risk in the sector and Moody's de Mexico put Metrofinanciera's loan securitizations on downgrade review. Both events took place the third week of April.

At first blush, mortgage delinquencies in Ireland appear higher than almost anywhere in Europe. But the data can be deceptive if it includes the Irish "specialist" market, since the rest of Europe is limited mainly to prime lending.

Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., has weathered the real estate downturn in part by specializing in the business of financing insurance premiums, and now it wants to free up capital for more traditional lending by securitizing premium-finance loans on its books.

With ABCP markets disrupted since last summer, the Bank of Canada began soliciting feedback in early March on its proposed eligibility criteria for accepting ABCP as collateral for borrowings under its Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF). The Bank of Canada's actions are an attempt to inject liquidity into a constrained ABCP market in Canada and to promote minimum acceptable standards of disclosure and transparency, which should benefit all market participants.

If there has ever been a time to make a campaign for mortgage insurance, current market conditions dictate that the time is now.

As the market looks for alternative investment opportunities and new ways to hedge risk, global index operator Markit has taken note.

As part of an ambitious plan to delay debt maturities and stay in business for another couple of years, Residential Capital (ResCap), the troubled real estate unit of GMAC, has offered to redeem $14 billion in bonds for as little as 77 cents on the dollar. The offer, announced May 2, expires June 3.

GMAC has had to put up with a lot of headaches lately, thanks to its residential real estate finance unit, Residential Capital.

The ABS market was in better spirits last week, thanks to BlackRock's announcement that it will purchase $15 billion of subprime mortgage debt from UBS.

UBS appointed heads to its new global capital markets group, an effort by the bank to combine the primary and derivative businesses of its equity capital markets and debt capital markets groups, according to published reports.