ABS

Former Credit Suisse director Jonathan Clark joined SLM Corp. as a senior vice president of corporate finance. Clark will lead the company's unsecured debt issuance and treasury operations. He will also assist the ABS team, according to a company statement. Clark was part of a recruitment haul at Credit Suisse in 2000, when the investment bank appointed Joe Donovan and Greg Richter, among others, to its asset finance group. Clark also worked at Prudential Securities, First Boston and Dean Witter. The student lender also hired John Hewes as executive vice president and chief credit officer, a role in which he will oversee the company's private student loan underwriting policies and credit risk management. For the last 22 years, Hewes led the consumer finance and business lending divisions at MBNA, one of the world's largest credit card issuers.

Fremont General Corp. said today that it received default notices on about $3.15 billion of loans it sold in March 2007. The Brea, Calif-based bank has received notices from two investors who bought the mortgages, which said Fremont violated sales terms when its tangible net worth dipped to less than $250 million. The mortgage firm expects its tangible net worth will be below $250 million when it reports 4Q07 financial results. The company said it might need to record write-downs and add to reserves for the quarter, which will further reducing its net worth. Both Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's cut their ratings on Fremont as a result of a deferred dividend as well as weak liquidity. Moody's cut its rating to 'Ca' from 'Caa3' and S&P cut Fremont General to 'CCC-' from 'CCC+.'

European securitization investors complain that they are being seen as childlike - they say it's not childish fear that's keeping them away, but rather not knowing what the final outcome will be once all the bad news is finally over.

ABS issuance slowed to a crawl since the last press time, yielding just a $1 billion Sallie Mae deal on Feb. 22, and a $180 million ratepayer-backed ABS last Thursday.

Cleco Power, a Louisiana utility company, issued bonds last week that will finance the cost of repairs of more than $160 million damages sustained after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region more than three years ago.

While one could hardly call the CLO market healthy, the rumors of its demise may be slightly exaggerated. It's not impossible to get a CLO transaction done, though a significantly easier time will be had by all if arrangers stay realistic about pricing and forget going the market value route, sources said. This market is going for cash.

Citigroup made news last December when it decided to consolidate about $49 billion in SIV assets onto its balance sheet. In its most recent 10-K filing, released on Feb. 22, Citigroup revealed that it had consolidated significant interests in CDO assets.

February remittance data offered almost no surprises, which, given the state of the struggling economy, means more bad news. The increase in delinquencies and foreclosures came with a slowdown in prepayments, although the rate of some losses has tailed off from the previous month.

Citigroup announced last week that Brian Leach will assume the role of chief risk officer, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit. Leach will also become acting chief risk officer for the institutional clients group.

Freddie Mac's new, stricter guidelines for the delivery fee structure of 30-year mortgages might hinder refinancings.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported that home prices declined 1.3% (5.2% annualized) in its seasonally adjusted purchase-only 4Q07 House Price Index compared with a 0.3% (1.4% annualized) decline in the third quarter.

BBVA Colombia has a consumer loan transaction in the works that's the first of its kind in the country. The only deals that have been done in the vicinity of this asset class is a securitization of payroll-deducted loans two years ago and a credit card transaction about ten years ago, according to a Bogota analyst familiar with the sector.

Standard Chartered SIV Whistlejacket has defaulted on its obligations and might be set for an orderly unwind.

BBVA Bancomer has registered a new RMBS with Mexican regulators, and mortgage insurance from Genworth is attached.

Mortgage market participants have been keeping a close eye on the CMBS market, which has seen spreads gap out drastically in recent months.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded a number of regional and community-based banks on concerns about their exposures to commercial real estate. The rating agency also looked at the potential losses in the affected banks' CRE portfolios.

McDonnell Investment Management has hired Michael Herzig as the managing director of McDonnell's newly established New York office. Herzig will head up the sales and client service effort for McDonnell's Alternative Credit Strategies Business Unit and will also help direct the product development and strategy committee for the firm. Herzig will serve on the management committee of McDonnell, reporting directly to Edward Treichel, McDonnell's president and CEO. Before McDonnell, Herzig had a nine-year stint at Deutsche Bank as a managing director. He was most recently a co-head of the U.S. CDO business with direct responsibility for CLO and credit opportunity fund origination and distribution.

The potential takeover bid for the U.K. outsourcing group Mapeley by U.S. hedge fund Fortress, its majority shareholder, will have no impact on CMBS that are backed by borrowers with Mapeley as their sponsor, Fitch Ratings said last week. Fitch said that the takeover approach coincides with the property company's need to refinance about £260 million ($515.5 million)of its debt before the end of April and the recent bid by Fortress was worth roughly £250 million. "In most cases, a sponsor of a loan must approach the relevant facility agent if it becomes subject to a change of control," Fitch analysts said. "Such a loan, including accrued interest and any amounts payable under the loan documents, might become immediately due and payable, either on demand by the agent or automatically." The relevant transactions are: DECO 6 - UK Large Loans 2 plc, DECO 8 Series 2006-UK Conduit 2 plc, DECO 11 Series 2006-UK Conduit 3 plc, European Loan Conduit No. 22 and Taurus CMBS (UK) 2006-2 plc. Mapeley focuses on the acquisition, ownership and management of a diverse portfolio of commercial properties, primarily let to government and strong credit quality tenants. The firm currently owns and actively manages a property portfolio of over £2.2 billion. -- NC

Alexander Rekeda joined Guggenheim Capital Markets as managing director and head of CDOs, effective today. Rekeda was previously head of structured credit, Americas at Mizuho Securities which he joined in November 2006. Mizuho dismissed its entire CDO-underwriting group in mid-December 2007, including Rekeda as well as 13 others, who all left Calyon for positions at Mizuho only one year prior. Rekeda had built up the cash CDO business at Calyon, where he had had been since July 2004.

This morning DBRS announced that it is expanding its U.S. structured finance market service. "In a continuing effort to provide value to the market, DBRS has announced the expansion of its U.S. structured finance market services in providing credit assessments," the rating agency said in a statement. "These assessments, which cover a variety of asset types, better allow institutions to value market risks in their portfolios." The release also said that institutions are encouraged to contact the rating agency for more granular analysis on their portfolios. It added that in "such difficult times, leadership, stability and credibility are necessities for the credit markets."