CDOs

Standard & Poor’s predicts that the volume of outstanding structured finance securities in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP will fall to the 23%-25% range by the end of 2011, the weighting it had in 2003-2004.

JPMorgan has revised an Apollo Management-managed CLO it is marketing, according to sources.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair became the first regulator to publicly shoulder some of the blame for foreclosure problems at several servicers, saying the agencies should have seen it coming.

Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit offered up a scathing review Monday of Basel III, saying the new rules do nothing to reduce pro-cyclicality or to level the playing field among different countries and differently regulated financial institutions.

The public finance market no longer has a triple-A rated bond insurer. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Assured Guaranty’s two insurer platforms on Monday to 'AA-plus' with a stable outlook from 'AAA' with a negative outlook.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) expressed its support for the portion of the Dodd-Frank Act that addressed conflicts of interest in securitization in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today.

Regulators took their first step this week toward drafting new rules that would require lenders to retain some risk before selling loans into the secondary market.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a report yesterday on the potential effect of credit risk retention requirements on securitization.

Moody’s Investors Service said the proposed rehabilitation plan to deal with Ambac Assurance Corp.’s segregated account of high-risk insured assets is a credit positive and, if confirmed by the courts, will put the Wisconsin-domiciled bond insurer “one step closer to an orderly run-off.”

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published recommendations for market interventions and securitization in emerging markets after meeting at Istanbul last week.

Delinquencies for CDOs backed by commercial real estate (CRE) loans continued to climb in September, Fitch Ratings said Friday.

Primus Guaranty and Commercial Industrial Financial Corp. (CIFC) expect to complete the proposed purchase by CIFC of Primus’ CypressTree Investment Management unit and the CLOs and structured credit funds it manages by the end of the month.

Bingham expanded its Hong Kong office by adding three partners namely, Laurence Isaacson, Vincent Sum and Mark Fucci.

The merger of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is shaping up to be the match made in regulatory hell.

Ambac Financial Group said that the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) has filed its Plan of Rehabilitation for the Segregated Account of Ambac Assurance Corp. in Dane County Circuit Court in Wisconsin.

Apollo is in the market with a $400 million CLO that was arranged by JPMorgan.

Remember all those prognostications from industry experts how the Dodd-Frank bill would destroy the nonbank segment of the mortgage industry, resulting in a total takeover of residential finance by depositories?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said today that it is seeking public comment on proposed regulations to require ABS issuers and credit rating agencies that rate ABS to provide investors with new disclosures about representations, warranties, and enforcement mechanisms.

United Capital Markets (UCM) is hosting tonight's concert and cocktail party that headlines Big Head Todd and the Monsters at Information Management Network’s (IMN) ABS East conference.

Rule 122a stipulates the main investor requirements with which banks have to comply. The regulation calls for these financial institutions to have formal procedures and operations in place to monitor - on an ongoing basis and in a timely manner - performance information on the underlying exposures in structured finance assets.