CDOs

It's harder to get financing to warehouse loans for a CLO these days.

Fitch Ratings caused a stir last month when Credit Suisse dropped the firm's rating of an RMBS because it took a more critical view of the deal than two of its rivals.

Two and a half years ago, regulators opened the door for rating agencies to offer ratings or commentary on credits even when they haven't been hired to do so. Since then, all NRSROs can access detailed transaction data that issuers are required to post on designated issuer Web sites. The intended effect: a side market in unsolicited ratings and commentary. The actual effect: not a single unsolicited rating and roughly 15 commentaries.

Regulations are making trade finance CDOs more attractive, but recent press buzz surrounding the market's potential appears to be overhyped and maybe a little amnesic.

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)is preparing to ease the reins on the use of financial derivatives and allow more credit unions to deal in a variety of instruments that would help them hedge interest rate risk, including interest rate swaps, caps, floors, options and collars.

Moody’s Investors Service Thursday issued a negative report on the bond insurance industry.

Morgan Stanley priced a $622 million CLO for Oak Hill Advisors, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged credit rating agency Egan-Jones Ratings Co. (EJR) and its owner and president Sean Egan for material misrepresentations and omissions in their July 2008 application to register as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) for ABS and government securities issuers.

Fitch Ratings today released a report looking at the global exposure to refinancing risk in the structured finance and covered bonds markets.

Price guidance a new $414 million CLO to be managed by Sankaty Advisors has emerged in line with other recent transactions, according to two people familiar with the deal.

On Friday a judge decided that a case seeking to reverse bond insurer MBIA’s 2009 transformation into two companies will go to trial on May 14.

Middle market lender NXT Capital is prepping its first collateralized loan obligation.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) will be holding ASF 2013 in the same spot that it did this year's conference. The industry gathering will be held at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas on January 27-30, 2013.

The New York Federal Reserve has started a competitive bid process in response to several reverse inquiries for the MAX CDO holdings in its Maiden Lane III (ML III) portfolio.

Some of the biggest players in the CLO industry are embroiled in a contract dispute.

Aurelius Capital Master and UBS have withdrawn from suits against bond-insurer MBIA.

Three banks suing MBIA accused the bond insurer of deliberately withholding damaging financial projections from insurance regulators who were evaluating its transformation.

Highland Capital Management claimed in court that Citigroup is trying to remove it as the portfolio manager of a $900 million CLO so the bank can book profits from its discounted purchase of CLO debt from its own clients and investors, according to a report by Courthouse News Service, a nationwide news service for lawyers and the media.

The potential sale of the Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets might signal that the Federal Reserve is making its move to take liquidity out of the system, securitization experts said today.