Securitization

Goldman Sachs underwrote $14.5 billion in CDOs in 2006 and took short positions against only 1% of the total, according to prepared testimony to be delivered today before the financial crisis inquiry commission.

Knight Capital Group launched sales, trading and research services for fixed-income investment advisers with a group brought over from Morgan Stanley, the firm said Wednesday. The financial services firm has been expanding its various fixed-income groups recently.

TAL Advantage IV, a wholly owned subsidiary of TAL International Group, has completed its offering of $197 million fixed-rate secured notes.

Several deals have come to market backed by different asset classes from issuers in various parts of the globe.

Fitch Ratings will apply its updated surveillance criteria in a review of its ratings on U.S. FFELP student loan ABS. The review includes subordinated bonds, the agency announced today.

Entaire Global Co. named Daniel Courchesne as senior vice president and director of strategic investments and financing, the firm announced today.

The Student Loan Corp. is in the market with a FFELP-backed student loan transaction. Citigroup Global Markets is the lead manager on the deal.

Ladder Capital Finance Holdings, a New York-based commercial real estate specialty finance company, has appointed Thomas Harney as head of Merchant Banking & Capital Markets to lead Ladder Capital's newly-created Capital Markets/M&A Group.

The New York Federal Reserve will engage in coupon swaps to help facilitate the delivery of approximately $9.2 billion in currently unsettled FNMA 5.5% pools, the regulator announced this morning.

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

Morgan Stanley Thursday afternoon agreed to pay $102 million to Massachusetts homeowners and the state, settling allegations that it aided and abetted subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. in taking advantage of consumers.

The long-running saga of the tariff deficit in Spain and attempts to securitize it took another twist in the form of a government guarantee.

Standard & Poor's has announced the categories of debt instruments which ratings will have a structured finance identifier.

An amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett, R- N.J. creating a new legal and regulatory framework for U.S. covered bonds was taken out from the financial reform bill that was agreed upon early this morning.

Mortgage bankers will be allowed to securitize Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) guaranteed loans without a risk retention requirement and certain GSE loans will be exempt as well, according to final provisions of the regulatory reform bill worked out late Thursday night.

After a marathon final day of debate, the regulatory reform process ended in the early hours of Friday in the same dramatic manner it had been conducted for more than a year: with a near breakdown followed eventually by a miraculous save.

BlackBox Logic revealed contracts with several new clients who will use the firm's loan-level data aggregation service called BBx Data(TM), for their RMBS research and forecasting needs.

Covered bond issuance has been strong over the past five trading days on the back of banks looking to take advantage of the final days of the European Central Bank's (ECB) purchase program. The program ends in the middle of next week.

Whole business securitizations (WBS) backed by restaurant franchise payments have shown stable performance despite recent difficulties in the industry, according to Moody’s Investors Services in a recent report.

Santander will purchase $3.2 billion of CitiFinancial Auto’s auto loan portfolios, the firm announced today.