ABS

Ownit Mortgage Corp. suddenly shut its doors last week, surprising both the industry and its own employees - who apparently were told only the night before. The self- proclaimed top-15 subprime mortgage lender was overwhelmed with delinquencies and buyback requests, sources said, even though the company's founder and chief executive Bill Dallas less than a year ago predicted the same fate for other subprime mortgage lenders.

Factory orders for durable goods might have dropped significantly, according to the U.S. Commerce Department figures released last week. However, the dip is apparently not enough to undermine performance on leases for transportation and equipment, which secure GE Capital's latest midticket equipment term ABS deal. Indeed, performance on the issuer's underlying collateral have been so strong that the reduced initial credit enhancement levels and incorporated a smaller reserve account and a step-down mechanism in its latest deal structure.

Last week looked in danger of being an all-HEL, all the time sort of issuance period, but a mid-ticket equipment lease, a shipping container deal and a stubbornly inverted swaps spread curve intervened to break up the monotony.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - Amid a rash of CDO structural innovations designed to lure equity investors, a familiar debate is again rearing its head - whether CDO managers should invest in the equity of the deals they manage. While some investors say a manager that puts its "own skin in the game," demonstrates confidence and commitment toward its product, others say a manager's equity investment could present a conflict of interest.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - While production companies are increasingly tapping Wall Street for funds to help counter the cost of making movies, one consultancy is looking to extend commercial paper and term financing for the first time to independent films. Sylvain Raynes, a founding partner of R&R Consulting, said he's been working for several years on a way to extend financing to the less institutional side of movie production.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - New CLO managers continue to be a thorn in the side of more seasoned players, who equate managing a deal in the currently benign credit environment to riding a bike with training wheels that investors can't see.

US Express Leasing, an independent equipment leasing company, recently priced its first term securitization, a $325 million deal. Market watchers say it is another sign of resurgence from a market that experienced a slowdown just five years ago.

The recently formed Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) announced that its first management team has taken root. The industry organization stems from the merger between the Bond Market Association and the Securities Industry Association executed earlier this year.

The merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Bank that was announced last week is expected to create the world's largest asset custodian and corporate trustee.

Countrywide Securities analysts have highlighted their recent production activity and applications trends in light of the decline in interest rates and shifts in the yield curve.

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Citigroup 10,940.0 1 14.4 18 JP Morgan 10,765.7 2 14.2 22 Wachovia Corp 10,448.2 3 13.7 18 Barclays Capital 8,026.2 4 10.6 13 Deutsche Bank AG 6,768.3 5 8.9 15 Banc of America Securities LLC 5,021.6 6 6.6 9 Credit Suisse 4,066.8 7 5.3 8 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 3,644.0 8 4.8 8 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 3,290.4 9 4.3 6 HSBC Holdings PLC 3,227.9 10 4.2 4 Industry Total 76,024.1 - 100.0 81 Source: Thomson Financial

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 41,073.0 1 14.4 58 Citigroup 32,460.9 2 11.4 57 Deutsche Bank AG 26,581.0 3 9.3 54 UBS 20,852.1 4 7.3 58 Credit Suisse 20,453.3 5 7.2 30 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 17,688.6 6 6.2 36 Wachovia Corp 17,345.4 7 6.1 42 Banc of America Securities LLC 16,965.1 8 6.0 36 Morgan Stanley 16,376.1 9 5.7 63 JP Morgan 14,909.1 10 5.2 36 Industry Total 285,045.3 - 100.0 566 Source: Thomson Financial

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Banc of America Securities LLC 18,719.8 1 30.4 27 Citigroup 10,982.0 2 17.8 16 JP Morgan 9,874.7 3 16.0 22 Morgan Stanley 4,055.3 4 6.6 5 Deutsche Bank AG 3,924.9 5 6.4 12 Barclays Capital 3,373.8 6 5.5 8 HSBC Holdings PLC 2,749.9 7 4.5 3 Credit Suisse 2,285.0 8 3.7 10 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 1,375.0 9 2.2 5 Wachovia Corp 1,124.9 10 1.8 4 Industry Total 61,622.9 - 100.0 93 Source: Thomson Financial

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues JP Morgan 2,125.0 1 18.4 3 Deutsche Bank AG 1,750.0 2 15.1 3 Banc of America Securities LLC 1,554.5 3 13.4 3 Barclays Capital 1,409.5 4 12.2 2 ABN AMRO 1,250.0 5* 10.8 2 Lehman Brothers 1,250.0 5* 10.8 2 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 1,000.0 7 8.7 2 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 925.0 8 8.0 2 Citigroup 300.0 9 2.6 1 Industry Total 11,564.0 - 100.0 10 Source: Thomson Financial

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Lehman Brothers 61,568.9 1 11.3 136 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 58,496.5 2 10.7 108 Countrywide Securities Corp 49,152.7 3 9.0 83 Citigroup 40,708.3 4 7.5 89 Deutsche Bank AG 39,018.8 5 7.2 90 Credit Suisse 36,107.6 6 6.6 86 Morgan Stanley 31,007.1 7 5.7 33 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 30,201.8 8 5.5 50 JP Morgan 29,557.5 9 5.4 67 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 28,447.2 10 5.2 86 Industry Total 544,938.9 - 100.0 1,005 Source: Thomson Financial

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Citigroup 11,358.1 1 19.1 13 Deutsche Bank AG 8,562.5 2 14.4 12 Credit Suisse 6,548.1 3 11.0 10 Wachovia Corp 4,871.9 4 8.2 4 Banc of America Securities LLC 4,720.6 5 8.0 6 Morgan Stanley 4,248.4 6 7.2 6 Lehman Brothers 3,873.7 7 6.5 3 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 3,819.9 8 6.4 4 Goldman Sachs & Co 3,809.3 9 6.4 5 RBC Capital Markets 2,179.0 10 3.7 4 Industry Total 59,340.9 - 100.0 42 Source: Thomson Financial

auto ABS 11% credit card ABS 8% catatrophe bonds 0% enterprise finance 0% equipment ABS 2% real estate ABS 70% structured settlements 0% student loan ABS 8% trade receivables 1% utilities ABS 0%

Barclays Bank PLC made a couple of key appointments to its investment banking division, Barclays Capital, this week. It recruited Bill Archer as managing director and head of its U.S. leveraged credit risk group, and Vincent Breitenbach as managing director and head of credit research for the Americas. Working from New York, Breitenbach will oversee research for U.S. investment grade, high yield and securitization as well as corporate credit research for Latin America. He will report to Mark Howard, managing director and head of research at Barclays Capital. Archer will oversee the leveraged credit risk management team within the investment bank's Global Financial Risk Management department. Previously, Breitenbach was a managing director at Countrywide Financial Corp., where he oversaw fixed income investor and bank relations, rating agency relationship management and internal capital structure advice. He was also a managing director at Lehman Brothers, covering corporate bond research for specialty finance companies, U.S. banks and securities firms. Archer was a managing director and co-chairman of the capital markets committee at Goldman Sachs. He also worked at Deutsche Bank for three years and at Bankers Trust for 18 years before that. Archer, who started today, is based in New York and reports to Ian Prior, a managing director and chief credit officer for the Americas.

A disagreement between the Big Four accounting firms and the ABS community could mean that issuers have even more Regulation AB-related paperwork than they expected at the end of 1Q07 - when the deadline for most revamped 10-K filings for registered securitizations rolls around.

Deutsche Bank and the Hispanic National Mortgage Association launched a joint venture that will finance mortgages largely to Hispanic immigrant borrowers who, for various reasons, have limited traditional credit profiles.