ABS

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

Mark Adelson, formerly head of ABS research at Nomura Securities International, has been appointed as managing director, chief credit officer at Standard & Poor's.

In announcing a fifth consecutive quarterly loss Wednesday, Irwin Financial Corp. in Columbus, Ind., said it would consider exiting its troublesome home equity business.

Brian Clarkson, president and chief operating officer of Moody's Investors Service, has decided to retire at the end of July, according to a memo from the rating agency. He will be stepping down in order to make way for new management to lead the company through its current changes in response to market criticism. “Challenging credit market conditions, combined with Moody's role and function in those markets, have created scrutiny and criticism from numerous external sources about various aspects of our business,” the memo said. Brian has also led the global structured finance, project finance, managed funds and public finance ratings businesses, as well as holding sales and marketing related positions in Moody's credit research and analysis products.

DBRS today announced that it will soon be launching a new series of monthly market reports.

Markit announced last Friday the addition of the ABX.HE.PENAAA sub-indices to the ABX.HE suite, which is expected to start trading on May 14.

UBS AG said it plans to cut about 5,500 jobs or 7% of its workforce, as it tries to grapple with $19 billion in losses related to the U.S. real estate and structured credit markets.

Swiss banking giant UBS AG is expected to announce today plans to exit the municipal bond business and put its muni group up for sale as it seeks to recover from losses the bank has said could total $12 billion, sources said yesterday.

The First Marblehead Corp. announced today that it is reducing operating expenses related to its student loan business and streamlining its operations. The company said it expects to lower its operating expenses by approximately $200 million pre tax on an annualized basis and has eliminated approximately 500 jobs on all levels of the corporate ladder.

In a report released today, Fitch Ratings said that the wholesale vehicle market is exhibiting weakness because of factors such as a weak economy and a soft job market.

Residential Capital (ResCap), a division of GMAC Financial Services, is set to exchange or redeem $14 billion of its existing debt.

GMAC and Residential Capital (ResCap) took ratings cuts today that brought their ratings deeper into junk territory, as Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings both took actions against the specialty finance entities.

Triad Guaranty announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm, to fund the creation of a new monoline.

Tougher financing conditions, coupled with doubts over the return of looser credit, are drawing the leading Brazilian banks back to structured finance.

In a hurried effort to shine light on the credit derivatives market - viewed as potentially the next domino to fall in the credit-market crisis - a new project by accounting standard setters could require firms to disclose more details about their exposure to the over-the-counter instruments currently on their books.

Ahead of Wednesday's statement from the Federal Open Market Committee, mortgage volume was substantially below normal as many participants held close to the sidelines. The overall tone of the sector, however, was supportive though generally tracking the curve and swaps. Asian investors were a steady presence with interest focused in 5s and 5.5s, while money managers and other real money were buying in 5s through 6s. Hedge funds, meanwhile, were two-way while servicers were generally quiet.

The municipal CDS market has come into sharp focus in the past year with monoline troubles, spread widening, and the general negative economic outlook calling attention to credit risk.

April remittance reports released last week reflected a continued dip in the 30- and 60-day delinquency buckets in most trusts across all the indices, Barclays Capital analysts reported.

Responding to investor gripes about lack of transparency and ratings instability for CDO transactions, Fitch Ratings unveiled new global rating criteria for corporate CDOs last week.

MJX Asset Management last week closed Veer Cash Flow CLO, a newly restructured incarnation of a market value transaction, Veer Loan Opportunities Fund.