Securitization

Miller Tabak Roberts Securities (MTR) launched its ABS / MBS unit with eight structured product veterans.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is calling for more transparency on ABS to revive the market, according to market reports

Mortgage volume showed a bit more life this week versus the previous week, averaging modestly above normal versus the average in the previous week.

The Town of Plymouth Retirement System is seeking a fixed-income firm with experience managing term asset-backed loan facility programs or distressed credit strategies.

The Federal Reserve is seeing a pickup in activity in the ABS market and more demand for its Term Asset-Back Securities Loan Facility (TALF), according to chairman Ben Bernanke.

Now that the Treasury Department has agreed to bail out certain life insurance companies with Troubled Asset Relief Program money, speculation is that mortgage insurance companies could be next.

A new Web-based community that targets fixed-income investors and professionals, http://www.fixedincomecolor.com/, was recently unveiled and released to the public.

MBIA yesterday said a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a number of financial institutions accusing it of an “unlawful restructuring” of its insurance operations is “without merit”.

Traditional call protection sectors such as loan balance, high LTV, and certain geographic concentrations are fully valued at this time, according to Credit Suisse analysts.

For the first time, the U.K. buy-to-let sector is experiencing a recession with falling house prices and rising unemployment.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal released a letter calling on the U.S. Department of Treasury to intervene in the Federal Reserve bailout program that gives the Big Three credit rating agencies — Moody's Investors Service, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's — the exclusive right to rate securities eligible for the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This cuts out smaller competitors who can also do the work.

The Treasury Department is reopening its Capital Purchase Program (CPP) for six months so small banks can get another shot of capital and increase their lending capacity.

Eighteen financial institutions have jointly sued MBIA over splitting its business in earlier this year, according to report from Dow Jones.

Mortgages from 2006 and 2007 emerge as problem loans.

LAS VEGAS -- Private-equity-backed companies with strong credit profiles are generally on the sidelines of the financing markets, hoping that the continuing stabilization of the credit markets will save them money on refinancing transactions.

Sallie Mae or SLM Corp. issued a statement in response to a Moody’s Investors Service downgrade of its long-term and short-term unsecured debt.

Fitch Ratings said that the performance of U.K. nonconforming RMBS continues to deteriorate, with higher loss levels being the key driver behind negative rating action on these deals.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations continued to drop in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations.

Freddie Mac's guaranteed loan portfolio is becoming more vulnerable to defaults due to a growing number of single-family mortgages with high loan-to-value ratios.

As anticipated, mortgage application activity remained unresponsive to historically attractive mortgage rate levels for the week ending May 8.