CDOs

Pillsbury has acquired a large group of finance and corporate attorneys from Nixon Peabody.

Blocking Rescues, or Challenging Bum Deals?

Many troubled banks are pleading with investors to sell trust-preferred securities back to them at a discount, warning they may fail otherwise. But a small group of investors are calling the banks' requests a bluff.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) appointed Armando Falcon as Senior Policy Advisor.

Ambac Financial Group said that it has commuted all of its remaining $16.4 billion of exposure to CDOs of ABS.

Oracle Capital, a hedge fund start-up founded by two former Lehman Brothers traders, has selected Quantifi XL for the pricing and analysis of their structured credit portfolio.

European and U.S. industry groups voiced their concerns over a proposed increase in ABS and CDO post-trade transparency disclosures in a joint letter to the Committee on European Securities Regulators (CESR).

DBRS further clarified its interpretation of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule 17g-5. The credit rating agency disclosed its planned approaches for both exempt and non-exempt structured finance (SF) instruments in light of the changes to the said ruling.

Moody's Investors Service launched a new quarterly newsletter called Structured Credit Perspectives, which was published beginning today.

Securitization Focus

When the European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled its €750 billion ($952 billion) bailout package to help stabilize the euro against the U.S. dollar, it addressed the crisis of confi dence created by fears of contagion over Greece’s sovereign risk.

Elgin Capital, a London-based asset manager, will start purchasing debtor-in-possession loans backing U.S.-based companies for its CLOs.

The tranches in the $325 million ALM Loan Funding 2010-1 LTD CLO — arranged by Citigroup and managed by Apollo Management — have been priced, a source familiar with the situation said.

Published reports indicated that some of the banks and credit rating agencies that were subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo are willing to cooperate with his investigation. Cuomo's probe is looking into the propriety of these firms' relationships.

Churchill Financial announced that Olympus Partners, a Stamford, CT-based private equity firm, has bought the asset management firm.

A new report issued by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on last year's failure of Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union (EFFCU) found that the one-time high-flying CU was brought down by risky investments in CDOs as well as loan losses and other concerns.

Large private-equity firms are buying up CLOs to generate higher returns for their investors, and the purchases have helped resuscitate a market that was in severe distress just a year ago.

Two weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) leveled fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, the financial giant is said to be mulling settlement talks with the regulator, according to Fox Business Network.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) suit against Goldman Sachs centers on the allegation that the Wall Street firm failed to disclose to investors the role an opportunistic hedge fund, Paulson & Co., played in choosing the assets underlying a CDO, before betting against it.

Highland Capital Management has promoted Patrick Boyce and Lane Britain to partner. Boyce is currently chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Highland; Britain is a portfolio manager and co-head of research at the firm.