CDOs

The market for CMBS has staged a comeback this year, and now it appears that there is some interest in restarting the market for CDOs backed by commercial real estate (CRE) as well.

Pricing on a CLO managed by Symphony Asset Management has been set by Morgan Stanley, according to sources.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted unanimously to propose new rules and amendments for increasing credit rating transparency and improving their integrity.

Syncora Guarantee reported positive net income for the first quarter but said it faces liquidity problems that threaten its future long-term obligations.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued new rules last week to update how companies account for repurchase agreements like the kind Lehman Brothers used to temporarily move billion of dollars of assets temporarily off its books and hide how much debt it had just before reporting its quarterly results.

Citigroup on Tuesday priced a $408 million CLO managed by BlackRock, according to sources.

Fitch Ratings has set up a page of performance markers for structured finance deals across the globe on its web site, the agency said today. The page will link to over 40 performance-based products, and in part is a response to investor demands for more transparency. Among its features are U.S. RMBS performance and loss metrics, Australia’s RMBS Dinkum Index, and the Mexican RMBS Performance Update.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued a trade reporting notice today regarding when to report ABS to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE).

Assured Guaranty’s recent settlement with Bank of America allowed it to post much higher operating earnings in the first quarter compared with 2010, but actual business production fell about a third.

A CLO managed by BlackRock Financial Management, BMI CLO I, is expected to price this week, according to sources.

After boosting its securitized products origination group just last week, Barclays Capital has hired more personnel for its ABS operations.

Space Coast Credit Union, which filed suit last week against Barclays Capital over CDOs the investment bank sold to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, is expected to file similar suits over the next few weeks against other Wall Street firms in the 2009 failure of the one-time $2.4 billion credit union.

The New York State appeals court has ruled that the New York Insurance Department (NYID)must hand over e-mails and documents regarding the restructuring of bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp.

Whether the New York Insurance Department (NYID) can appeal a ruling that ordered it to hand over e-mails and documents regarding the restructuring of bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp. could be decided soon.

The commodities and listed derivatives firm under the guise of former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said today that it has taken steps to expanding its capital markets and institutional sales teams with the firm’s recent slew of new hires.

Ambac Assurance Corp.’s rehabilitation plan won’t take effect in May as planned, meaning that frozen claims on roughly $50 billion of risky assets will remain unpaid until further notice.

For years esoteric ABS kept its little brother status in a securitization market that was largely dominated by more conventional asset classes.

ABS investors' search for yield has taken them to an interesting place, where products that were once marginal are now the main attraction. In vogue are decidedly esoteric deals, ranging from whole business securitizations to structured settlement transactions.

European securitization market players will apparently put more "skin-in-the-game" than their U.S. counterparts if U.S. regulatory requirements for risk retention move ahead as written.

As with their counterparts in other areas of structured finance, emerging market players have been mulling over the question of where exactly their deals fit in the new regulatory landscapes of Western Europe and the U.S.