CDOs

CIFG Holding, the holding company for CIFG’s financial guaranty subsidiaries, said that John Pizzarelli’s employment as chief executive officer is ending upon the successful completion of a settlement reached between CIFG and its derivatives counterparties and insured bondholders on the company’s troubled structured finance portfolio.

CIFG Holding, the holding company for CIFG’s financial guaranty subsidiaries, said that it, along with its principal shareholders, Banque Populaire Group and Caisse d’Epargne Group, has reached a final settlement with credit default swap (CDS) counterparties and bondholders holding 98% of its gross par outstanding of ABS CDO exposures and certain specified CRE CDO exposures.

To combat a CLO market frozen stiff by a lack of new capital, price declines, and waning confidence, some firms are working on new CLO portfolio strategies to bring in business and keep current clients interested in the loan market.

Jefferies & Co., the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, hired three senior MBS and ABS institutional sales professionals to the Firm’s growing fixed-income sales and trading platform.

Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded $10 billion and affirmed $435.9 million of rated notes across 16 CDOs backed primarily by trust preferred securities (TruPS), senior and subordinated debt issued by REITs, homebuilders and financial institutions that specialize in mortgage lending.

KBC group said in a press release last week that it expected its full-year net earning to fall by €900 million ($1.2 billion). This is a result of further downgrades by Moody’s Investors Service made on a range of CDOs held by the group.

Babson Capital Management is ramping up global distribution with the establishment of the global business development group, as well as the hiring of a new global sales head and its first sales leader for Australia.

Gulf Stream Asset Management said last week that it is establishing a credit dislocation fund and a multi-strategy credit hedge fund.

Morgan Joseph & Co., a full-service investment bank, expanded the firm’s analytics and trading group that operate in the secondary market for fixed-income structured products by hiring two new members to the team, as announced today by Matthew Stedman, the firm's head of sales and trading.

Weak economic conditions have put capital strains on trust preferred securities (TruPS) issuers, causing a rise in payment deferrals and defaults within pools of these assets, TruPS CDOs.

Babson Capital Management announced a series of promotions today.

Oak Hill Advisors has hired Fritz Thomas as a managing director, where he will help head up the firm’s business development and client coverage activities.

The ABS market suffered yet another week of frozen new issuance and paltry trading activity in the secondary market.

Moody's Investors Service is modifying the rating methodology it applies to structured finance securities wrapped by financial guarantors.

As the U.S. government continues to unveil measures aimed at preventing foreclosures and shoring up liquidity in the capital markets, industry participants have widely expressed concern over the lack of activity in the loan modification space.

Equity Trust and The Bank of New York Mellon now have a global referral agreement where both companies refer potential business opportunities for structured finance services to each other.

It seems the only busy sector of the structured finance market lately is litigation.

CLO market participants at the Information Management Network's 14th annual ABS East conference in Hollywood, Florida last week expressed confidence in the sector's long-term performance, despite the currently depressed spreads.

Oak Hill Advisors hired Goran Puljic, T.K. Narayan and Scott W. Snell for the firm’s structured products group. The new hires will be focusing on investment opportunities in the credit markets.

Few investment banks know the trust-preferred securities market as well as FTN Midwest Securities Corp. Since 2001, the First Horizon National Corp. unit has structured more than 30 pooled trust-preferred deals, raising $22 billion for hundreds of banks and thrifts.