Securitization

The Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA) asked Congress leadership to extend the Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility (TALF) to commercial real estate as a way to facilitate lending in the private commercial mortgage market.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is closing down its remaining wholesale channel and will no longer offer prime mortgages through brokers, the New York banking company said Tuesday.

Dragged down by losses related to private-label MBS, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle said late Monday that it expects to fall below regulatory capital minimums as of Dec. 31.

Credit Suisse thinks mortgage bankers will originate about $1.75 trillion in new home mortgages this year with refinancings accounting for 58% of the total.

Jonathan L. Kempner, who was president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association until the end of last year, has accepted a position as an independent director of Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I. B

Edward Gotschall, co-founder of New Century Financial Corp. — once one of the largest subprime lenders in the nation — died late last week of natural causes, according to a report in The Orange County Register. He was 53.

President-elect Barack Obama is planning to use the remaining $350 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to prevent foreclosures, impose tough conditions on companies that receive government help, and thaw credit markets.

Boaz Weinstein, an early player in credit default swaps market, is leaving Deutsche Bank to start his own hedge fund.

Denver-based asset management and structured finance firm The Chotin Group Corp. has hired Edward Shaoul as executive vice president.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the Financial Services Roundtable strongly oppose the bankruptcy "cramdown" deal Citigroup stuck Thursday with key Democratic senators.

The House Financial Services Committee released draft legislation on Friday that will revamp the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), requiring that a minimum of $50 billion of the remaining $350 billion be used for foreclosure mitigation to help consumers.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) narrowly decided Jan. 7 to approve an amendment allowing holders of securitized assets to consider factors besides fair value to determine whether to report losses in those investments.

During the last month of the year, Peru perked up, while an old hand from Brazil returned to the market.

Mexico closed out the month of December with deals from four originators. Spreads were well out from earlier in the year, but these transactions at least made it through, and market investors bought in as well.

Islamic securitizations are still gaining some traction. However, the current credit crunch will keep any real activity under wraps, at least in the short term.

Prepayments on FNMA 30-year MBS were in line with expectations. Overall, speeds increased 46% on average. However, the speed dynamics by coupon were much different than anticipated.

Much like the rest of the European primary ABS market, new issuance for auto ABS in 2008 slowed significantly compared with the volumes issued during 2007.

On Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that it had begun purchasing fixed-rate agency MBS.

The current financial crisis has exacerbated counterparty risk and raised to unprecedented heights the importance of collateral arrangements in over-the-counter derivatives. More than 85% of such arrangements are documented by a version of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Credit Support Annex (CSA)1, and in most cases the negotiation of an ISDA Master Agreement is done simultaneously with the preparation of the related CSA2.

As one of the last investment banks standing, JPMorgan Securities became the top-ranked manager for public ABS deals for the entire year in 2008, according to a tally of public ABS transactions included in the ASR Scorecard database.