ABS

A major clash of ideals is brewing in Washington, D.C. as lawmakers and regulators last week introduced policies that would change the way credit card portfolios are managed.

Six months after several of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s top fixed-income executives were ousted from their jobs, another round of shakeouts is underway, which involve many of the bank's senior executives in fixed income.

The timeshare sector is making a few waves in the securitization sector this month. Over the course of a week, three deals came to market, two of which priced at press time.

Spread tightening continues in the European ABS secondary market. Dutch paper has come in the most, followed by Italian.

Major legislative and regulatory propasals came forward last week, which hint at potentially big changes for the student loan and credit card industries.

The Federal Reserve Board has today announced an expansion of the asset classes eligible under the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF). The board said that triple-A-rated ABS will be eligible as schedule II collateral starting with the May 7 auction.

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

Standard & Poor’s announced that it will no longer be rating U.S. closed-end second-lien mortgage loans as well as related RMBS. Since the S&P projects an “unprecedented” level of loan performance deterioration, it explained that the market segment does not allow for “meaningful analysis of new issuance and securitization.”

H&R Block has closed the sale of the mortgage loan servicing business of its Option One Mortgage Corp. subsidiary effective April 30. As previously announced, the purchaser was American Home Mortgage Servicing, which is an affiliate of WL Ross & Co. According to a release from H&R Block, the proceeds of the deal at closing were roughly $1.3 billion. Option One used the proceeds partly to repay more than $980 million on its servicing advance facility, which represents the outstanding balance of this facility. After repayment of servicing advances, Option One realized net cash proceeds of slightly over $230 million and retained a receivable relating to certain servicing assets of roughly $100 million.

Moody's Investors Service announced the appointment of Jonathan Polansky, who is now the group managing director of the rating agency's asset finance group, to the newly created role of structured finance global surveillance coordinator. In his new role, Polanksy will work closely with the rating agency's surveillance and line of business managers to monitor outstanding Moody's-rated structured transactions.

Six months after several of Merrill Lynch & Co.’s top fixed-income executives were ousted from their jobs, another round of shakeouts is underway, which involve many of the bank’s senior executives in fixed income.

Assured Guaranty Corp. appointed Christopher Mortello to managing director of structured finance surveillance overseeing the company’s ABS and RMBS portfolios. Mortello, who previously spent over 10 years at Assured underwriting structured finance transactions, has returned to the bond insurer and will now be focusing on portfolio surveillance, remediation and reporting for the structured finance portfolio.

Although General Motors Corp. today posted better-than-expected results based on strong overseas sales, it also took a $1.45-billion charge for its remaining investment in auto finance company GMAC, according to market reports.

Tom White, currently head of global markets, will be transitioning to a new leadership role as president of the principal capital group at Bank of America.

German banking giant Deutsche Bank on Tuesday said it posted a first-quarter loss of €141 million ($219.9 million), or 27 cents a share, amid of €2.7 billion worth of write-downs related to leverage loans, loan commitments, commercial real estate and residential mortgage bonds backed by alt-A home loans.

McGraw-Hill Cos. announced today that its quarterly earnings fell 44% due to business dropping at its Standard & Poor's unit.

RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure filings in the first quarter were up 23% from 4Q07, and up 112% from a year ago. The firm said that one in every 194 households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

The Case-Shiller home price index fell sharply in February. The 20-city index dropped significantly by 2.6% in February, which is not annualized. The index's fall has accelerated from the 2.3% drop in January and the 2.1% dip in both November and December. According to RBS Greenwich Capital, that works out to a 24% annualized home prices drop in the 20 cities measured for the November to February period. February marked the sixth consecutive month where every one of the 20 cities posted a monthly home price decline, said RBSGC analysts. Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami, and all of the major cities in California registered the sharpest dips, the firm reported.

Radian Group announced that it presented a comprehensive business and financial plan to the GSEs earlier this month, as a result of its drop in ratings to single-A.

Jefferies & Co. made news last week when it hired 10 senior executives for its mortgage-backed securities trading group, in an effort to expand its fixed-income business.