Securitization

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

Ford Credit Canada is in the market with its Ford Auto Securitization Trust 2011-R1.

Wells Fargo, which has emerged as a constant seller of delinquent mortgages, is offering roughly $350 million worth of whole loans, some of which are nonperforming, according to investment banking sources.

The chances that Ambac Assurance Corp. will be able to keep $700 million of disputed tax refunds increased last week when a federal court in Wisconsin again threw out the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) case against the bond insurer.

A year after the credit card reform law was enacted, Elizabeth Warren, the administration's official in charge with setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said the industry has improved its practices and warned against over regulation of the card market.

Ginnie Mae's MBS program has experienced unprecedented growth the past two years and now the agency wants to nearly triple its allotment for salaries to $30 million, allowing it to hire additional staff while reducing its dependence on outside contractors.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has proposed a new investment rule that eliminates the need to obtain top grades from the rating agencies, replacing it instead with the judgment of a credit union's management.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has sent letters to former executives of the failed Washington Mutual Bank, Seattle, warning of possible legal action, according to a report by Dow Jones, quoting a source familiar with the situation.

Federal prosecutors have ended their criminal investigation of former Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo, after deciding that his actions managing the nation's largest lender did not constitute criminal behavior, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

The White House may want to pull the plug on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but it plans on keeping the Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLB) alive, albeit at reduced capacity.

Fast-food-chain operator Church's Chicken is paying 6% on its $220 million in bonds backed by franchise fees and store revenue, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Wells Fargo priced their $1.3 billion CMBS this week. The transaction's triple-A, A4 tranche priced tighter than the first two deals that kick-started CMBS issuance.

Borders Bookstores filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts noted several weeks ago that this was expected and, at the time, they did a preliminary CMBS tenant exposure report. Their initial list used the tenant information available and trustee reports, which are typically limited to the top three tenants.

The Treasury Department has tapped a former Wall Street managing director to be in charge of the research, markets and regulation arm of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Redwood Trust has priced its newest publicly placed prime RMBS deal, Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2011-1.

The municipal bond insurance industry would still be thriving today if big banks hadn’t defrauded the insurers.

Discover Financial Services wants to get into mortgage origination, an executive for the credit card company said Thursday.

Jay Hohman is a leaving StormHarbour Partners where he was director with the primary responsibility for the sale of fixed-income products to institutional investors.

In the past few years the market has seen a considerable minority of borrowers who are behind on their 1st mortgage continue to pay their 2nd mortgage, according to Amherst Securities Group (ASG) analysts.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.22% of all loans outstanding as of the end of 4Q10. This amounts to a 91 basis point decrease from 3Q10, and a 125 basis point drop from a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.