ABS

Credit Suisse is splliting the management of its global securities division among four executives after Michael Ryan, the former sole head of the unit left the bank, according to Financial News. Gael de Boissard, Tony Ehinger, Steve Kantor and Jonathan McHardy will now be the heads of global securities and report to Paul Calello, head of the Credit Suisse's investment bank.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is set to slash 200 staff in its global banking and markets businesses this week as a response to the global economic credit crunch. The bank said the elimination of jobs is not driven by the cost cutting program that has been initiated after its ABN Amro acquisition last year.

Markit has purchased NTC Economics, which offers global macro-economic indicators and owner of the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) series.

Moody's Investors Service has placed under review for possible downgrade the ratings of 93 notes in 12 National Collegiate Student Loan Trust transactions. The actions follow Monday's bankruptcy filing of The Education Resources Institute (TERI). Moody's downgraded TERI's rating on Tuesday to 'Ca' from 'B2.'

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the American Securitization Forum (ASF) offered comments today on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ Proposed Rule to Amend the Home Mortgage Provisions of Regulation Z.

The Education Resources Institute (TERI) filed for Chapter 11 yesterday. According to a report from Barclays Capital, Moody’s Investors Service's downgrade of TERI to 'B2' from 'Baa3' on March 26 tripped a trigger in a loan contract. This resulted in the student loan firm’s having to post cash to cover its student loan guarantees.

U.K. battered mortgage lender Northern Rock reported a loss of £199 million ($391.55 million) over the year compared to a profit of £443 million in 2006.

Local government bodies in the Australian state of New South Wales have been forbidden from making new CDO investments and other structured credit products until December 2009.

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

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced legislation that would improve access to federal loans and increase the amounts of Pell Grants for certain college students, saying that Congress “cannot allow problems in the credit market to prevent students from going to college.”

Despite its current difficulties, Bear Stearns took the top spot in the U.S. RMBS manager rankings for 1Q08, according to Thomson Financial data. The bank rose from a second place finish for all of 2007 and third place in the first quarter of last year.

Fitch Ratings said that last week's downgrade of UBS AG to AA-' from AA' does not have a negative impact on the ratings of the Broadgate Financing PLC securitization.

Without a doubt, a puzzle looms over the student loan finance business. How will students continue to finance their educations amid the potential withdrawal of $20 billion from Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) programs, reductions in subsidies to lenders that provide certain FFELP loans?

Through the worst of Argentina's post-devaluation recession, a securitization of oil and gas royalties originated by the province of Salta made good on its payments. But now, six years after the economy touched bottom and subsequently entered a prolonged growth spurt, the province may end up doing what many Argentine issuers did six years ago - restructure.

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded domestic deals in Mexico wrapped by FGIC to Aa3.mx' from Aaa.mx.' While the agency had downgraded monoline-wrapped emerging-market deals on its global currency scale before last week, this move marked the first time Moody's lowered the rating on wrapped deals on Mexico's national scale. GMAC Financiera is the originator of the deal, which is

The U.K. nonconforming lending market got smaller last week when the news of two more lenders stepping out of the game hit the European market - Southern Pacific Mortgage Loans (SPML) and Preferred Mortgage Loans (PML), which are both units of Lehman Brothers.

Camulos Capital closed Camulos Loan Vehicle 1 last Wednesday, kicking off the second quarter with positive news in the way of new issuance. The $731 million cash flow CLO, which is the first CLO for the manager, offered triple-A to double-B paper in five tranches priced at 85, 250, 300, 500 and 800 basis points, according to ASR Scorecards database. Morgan Stanley underwrote the deal, and Citigroup is the trustee.

Even with the U.S. Treasury making an aggressive attempt to revamp the country's financial system, market experts believe that there is not much chance of this happening in 2008.

The subprime mortgage meltdown continues to alter the asset securitization market. In the first place, issuance was just $63.8 billion, a 71.7% plunge from the $225.6 billion in transactions that the industry completed at the end of the first quarter last year. With business down by more than two-thirds from last year, it left leading investment banks to juggle the bad news of writing down losses and imposing layoffs while trying to get work done, too.

U.K. nonconforming lenders continue their exodus from the market. This has left borrowers with little option for refinancing and left lenders facing mounting arrears.