Securitization

As Congress and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) debate the severity of restrictions to place on greedy lenders and Wall Street "securitizers" to ensure that they can never again jeopardize the global financial system while forcing droves of decent American families into homeless shelters, we would all do well to take a step back and consider where the U.S. housing finance system has been and where it is headed.

Totals for public ABS deals for the first quarter of 2010 dropped year-over-year, according to preliminary figures from the ASR Scorecard database.

Finally. The U.S. Treasury Department and the nation's largest mortgage lender have introduced programs that appear more likely to lessen foreclosures and hopefully stabilize house prices. However, only a slice of investors in the MBS housing those mortgages may clink champagne glasses.

Last Tuesday President Obama enacted a law requiring all student loans that are federally guaranteed to be originated by the federal government - effectively eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) starting on June 30. This is an event that, according to ABS analysts, will have a considerable and permanent impact on the SLABS market.

The Association of Mortgage Investors has put together a white paper for Congress and regulators as they consider ways to revitalize private sector demand for mortgage asset-backed securities.

Fannie Mae issued $44 billion in mortgage-backed securities in February, down 7.6% from the previous month.

Ambac Financial Group will not be filing its Form 10-K on or prior to March 31.

Alvaro G. de Molina had a front-row seat for the financial crisis as the chief executive of GMAC Inc. from March 2008 to last November. The longtime Bank of America Corp. executive — he rose to chief financial officer there — oversaw GMAC's launch of Ally Bank, which drew the ire of traditional banks and ran afoul of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for aggressive deposit pricing.

Citigroup has priced a $525 million CLO, upsized from $500 million, that will be managed by an affiliate of WCAS Fraser Sullivan Investment Management.

Citigroup has priced a $525 million CLO, upsized from $500 million, that will be managed by an affiliate of WCAS Fraser Sullivan Investment Management.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded 24 structured finance transactions backed by pools of Greek assets.

Tenneco has modified its U.S. trade accounts receivable securitization program to extend the revolving terms of the program to March 25, 2011, add an additional bank investor and increase the available financing under the facility by $10 million to a total of $110 million.

According to Fitch Ratings, 32 corporate synthetic CDO tranches will default following the recent ISDA ruling which called a credit event on Ambac Assurance Corporation.

Jefferies hired of Cyril Paillard as a managing director in MBS and ABS sales in Paris.

Interest in both new production and legacy loans has been growing for some time, but without a capital markets outlet like securitization, some careful matchmaking will continue to be needed to meet the growing demand.

As the Federal Reserve officially leaves the MBS market this week, mortgage servicers will likely step up their hedging efforts to shield portfolios from any major rise in interest rate volatility.

The European asset-backed commercial paper market might see a return to stable growth during the remainder of 2010 after three years of declining issuance, according to Fitch Ratings.

Despite several attempts, the senior loan market has thus far failed to build on any kind of meaningful and sustained momentum. Up to this point, in early March, the efforts have been marked more by the failings of some familiar faces than by the new stars that were expected to materialize out of the shadows of the hobbled lenders.

Property valuers and loan servicers may be too cautious when reviewing the European commercial property markets and the approach may encourage excessive conservatism to be built into valuations and work-out strategies, said Fitch Ratings.

CIT Group announced that it has closed a new $1 billion committed U.S. vendor finance conduit facility with Barclays Bank as administrative agent and three additional banks as committed lenders.