Securitization

Henrik Raber, formerly a European fixed-income banker at UBS, joined Standard Chartered as head of its U.S. and European capital markets business, according to published reports. He will join StanChart in August.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) is looking to commit as much as $1.5 billion to distressed investments, one third of which would be used to boost the firm’s exposure to leveraged loans, according to Reuters.

The European Parliament voted last week in favor of strict rules to improve the transparency and independence of credit ratings.

Federal regulators released more details Friday about how they did their stress tests — even as they sat down with bankers to tell them how they had performed.

Freddie Mac's issuance of MBS totaled $57.7 billion in March — nearly double its activity in February as a result of the surge in refinancings.

BlackRock has hired Russell Brownback, Leland Hart, Michael Lipsky, Mike Phelps, John Stein, Josh Tarnow and Michael Weaver, all formerly of R3 Capital Management, as managing directors.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), together with its affiliate the European Securitization Forum (ESF), said they welcomed the announcement of the U.K. government's 2009 ABS Guaranty Scheme for RMBS.

Fitch Ratings said that the recently proposed amendments to include a credit support annex (CSA) for six Harbourmaster CLO transactions are a positive structural feature as they reduce counterparty risk within the deals.

Lawmakers at a House Financial Services Committee hearing Thursday appeared open to moderating mortgage reform legislation after complaints that it would reduce lending.

U.K. building societies are in talks with the Bank of England (BoE) about their use of the Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS), according to Dresdner Kleinwort analysts.

Credit Suisse Group, Zurich, took another sizable CMBS writedown during the first quarter but fared well in several other areas including secondary trading of U.S. RMBS.

DebtX, Boston, will sell more than $269 million in commercial real estate, commercial and industrial and consumer loans from two Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receiverships on May 12.

CIT Group said on Thursday it lost $438.1 million, or $1.30 a share, in the first quarter, compared with $240.7 million, or $1.36 a share, a year ago.

FBR Capital Markets, an Arlington, Va.-based investment, broker and asset manager, is setting up a credit trading team and debt origination business, according to Bloomberg.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded its ratings of 188 notes issued by 91

An auction is slated for this Friday of Standard Chartered's Whistlejacket structured investment vehicle.

More than two months after the Treasury Department announced a "bold expansion" of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), nothing has happened and doubts are growing that anything ever will.

Net losses on commercial real estate investments totaling $1 billion, in addition to widening debt-related credit spreads, contributed to Morgan Stanley's overall $177 million net loss for the first quarter.

Despite a massive runoff, U.S. banks continue to hold $1.7 trillion in private-label MBS on their books and Standard & Poor's estimates additional losses on these mortgage-backed securities could reach $260 billion.

A private investment firm specializing in alternative and real asset investment strategies Belstar Group launched the Belstar Credit Fund, L.P. and the Belstar Altair Credit Fund, L.P.