CDOs

Dechert hired Lawrence Berkovich as counsel in its finance and real estate (FRE) group. He was most recently special counsel at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Highland Capital Management is the latest U.S. firm to sell its European CLO assets, according to Bloomberg.

A Resource Capital Corp. subsidiary will purchase 100% of the ownership interests in Churchill Pacific Asset Management (CPAM) from Churchill Financial Holdings for $22.5 million, the New York-based real estate investment trust said today in a statement.

European structured finance products continue to absorb elevated credit risks very well from a performance standpoint, according to Unicredit analysts.

A new rule in Europe—Article 122a of the Capital Requirements Directive, which calls for originators, sponsors or original lenders in an arbitrage CLO to retain at least 5% of the vehicle’s equity on their balance sheet—has European loan market participants worried about the future of these funds, and places a kink in a market that, after two years of inactivity, is just starting up again.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Friday named Michael Krimminger, a close aide to Chairman Sheila Bair, as the agency's new general counsel.

Intex Solutions introduced INTEXcalc, a new end-user application offering transparency, ease of use, and speed in analyzing structured finance securities.

Credit Suisse hired Dale Westhoff as the global head of structured products research. Westhoff. who will be based in New York, will focus on MBS, ABS and other structured products.

Most people believe the Basel III capital rules are buttoned up. International regulators worked hard, agreed in December to impose tough standards and then gave bankers eight years to meet them.

The head of the only active U.S. bond insurer on Tuesday ridiculed the new bond-insurer ratings methodology proposed by Standard & Poor’s as unjustified, irrational, and too subjective.

All the rating agencies have recently issued warnings about or downgraded re-securitizations, known as re-REMICs, and while those deals issued over the last few years appear hardy enough to withstand another housing downturn, their resemblance to infamous CDOs raises concerns.

After the near collapse of the Canadian securitization market in August 2007, 2010 saw a strong resurgence in term ABS issuance in Canada. Among other things, there were 16 public deals with combined total issuance of more than CAD$11 billion. There were also signs of renewed activity in the ABCP market with conduits taking on new deals with originators who had been largely frozen out of this market over the last few years. Overall, there is a general sense of optimism about the market and, as a result of both market forces and government action, it's fair to say that the Canadian securitization market is, if not perfectly well, at least comfortably on the road to recovery.

Michael Callen, executive chairman of bankrupt bond insurance holding company Ambac Financial Group, announced his resignation Friday afternoon.

Standard & Poor’s is considering whether Assured Guaranty’s credit is really 'AA-plus'. The credit-default swap market made that decision a while ago and its verdict is no.

Ambac Assurance Corp.’s rehabilitation plan was accepted Tuesday by a Wisconsin state court.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft hired Joseph Beach for its Charlotte office as special counsel in the capital markets department. His practice will focus on loan finance and securitization.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) released its detailed agenda for its ASF 2011 conference that will be held in Orlando, Florida from Feb. 6-9.

Sidley Austin promoted Chicago-based lawyer T.J. Gordon to partner in its structured finance and securitization and syndicated and leveraged finance groups.

Martin Fingerhut, previously a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon's (Blakes) financial services group and chair of the law firm's structured finance group, is moving to Cassels Brock & Blackwell, another Canadian law firm based in Toronto. Fingerhut was hired as a senior partner and head of the firm's securitization group.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a fact sheet this morning on a rule requiring ABS issuers to disclose the history of both the requests they received and repurchases they made related to their ABS outstanding.