CDOs

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.

The financial crisis reached its apex in fall 2008 when major Wall Street firms collapsed. But for the big three rating agencies - Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings - the crisis began at least a year before, when they started issuing massive downgrades of RMBS.

Standard & Poor's, along with Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, downgraded billions of dollars structured transactions in the summer of 2007, resulting in a wave of criticism. So when Deven Sharma was named S&P president on Sept. 1 of that year, he kicked off a reform program that continues today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today voted unanimously to propose amendments that would remove references to credit ratings in several rules under the Exchange Act.

When global regulators last year announced final international capital and liquidity standards, bankers for the first time in months breathed a sigh of relief, appearing even to welcome the agreement.

Bram Smith, the executive director of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA), yesterday testified before a congressional subcommittee, arguing against proposed rules that would require CLO managers to retain a 5% interest in their funds.

Deerfield Capital Corp. and CIFC have closed their merger. The new firm will now be called CIFC Deerfield Corp.

Investors have proven slow to return to the European securitization market. The limited appetite has been matched by a lackluster amount of securitization supply that market analysts said has created an imbalance in secondary and primary securitization pricing.

Moody's Investors Service will be extending the comment period on proposed changes to its modeling framework for cash-flow CLOs.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is expected Tuesday to propose new capital requirements for certain swap participants, as well as guidelines for adjusting the premiums of large banks.

The efforts of five Wisconsin school districts to recoup their ill-fated $200 million investment in CDOs have received reinforcement in the form of possible Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action against an investment bank for its role in the transaction.