Securitization

Federal regulators shut down $307 billion-asset Washington Mutual Bank, the largest failure in American history, late Thursday, selling its assets and deposits to JPMorgan Chase.

Freddie Mac's August monthly volume summary illustrates the escalation of the financial crisis this summer and its need to preserve capital.

Australian RMBS are getting much needed support. The government's asset manager Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), which is supported by the Reserve Bank, plans to temporarily invest up to A$4 billion ($3.3 billion) in RMBS.

UBS appointed Jeffrey Mayer as joint global head of the fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) business within its investment bank.

Discover Financial Services today reported net income for 3Q08 of $180 million, or $.37 per share, which is an 11% drop from income reported in the 3Q07.

Mortgage rates surged this week resulting from all the credit turmoil. The 30-year fixed mortgage rates wiped out almost half of the last two-week's of declines.

Standard & Poor's has lowered its counterparty credit rating on Washington Mutual to 'CCC'/'C' from 'BB-'/'B'.

Bank supervisors from central banks and supervisory agencies meeting at the International Conference of Banking Supervisors in Belgium this week said they endorse the Basel Committee’s Principles for Sound Liquidity Risk Management and Supervision.

Toronto-Dominion Bank is setting up a €10 billion covered bond program that it is currently marketing to European investors.

Mortgage professionals Sue Allon and Daniel Gallery have formed Allon Financial, a mortgage due diligence provider focused on helping clients understand, manage and reduce risk, as well as improve returns by making informed whole loan trade and bond buying decisions.

Cohen & Co. CEO Christopher Ricciardi wrote an open letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Pauslon dated today titled Enhancing The Paulson Plan Through the Creation of a Federal Bond Insurance Corporation.

Doug McGregor was appointed chairman and co-CEO of RBC Capital Markets, corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, while Mark Standish has been appointed president and co-CEO of the firm.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox called Tuesday for regulation of certain credit derivative products, saying the market was overrun by fraud that contributed to the housing crisis.

.A consortium of trade associations sent a letter to Congress today, urging its members to drop the proposal to include a bankruptcy “cram down” or the ability to allow judges to reduce the balance owed on a mortgage and to rewrite the terms of mortgages.

Katten Muchin Rosenman formed a new multidisciplinary task force to advise clients on the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s proposed Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported its home price index fell by 0.6% in July.

First Marblehead Corp. has made a series of management structure changes that it announced yesterday.

Barclays just announced that Lehman has started to re-open for business under its ownership. According to the release, more than 10,000 Lehman Brothers employees have been offered jobs in the new firm.

Some research from Wall Street has already started to come out on Treasury's plan The Troubled Asset Relief Act of 2008, which has been proposed to buy up troubled/illiquid assets at financial firms.

GFI Group has added five new hires in emerging markets credit default swaps in New York.