Securitization

Emerging markets at the Global ABS conference in Cannes took up a sliver of the schedule - in three and a half days of talks, only three panels were dedicated to EM, and two of those dealt exclusively with Russia.

Last week saw another round of light ABS issuance, which, after several weeks of steady issuance, had traders increasingly certain that the summer slump has begun to take effect.

Manager Activity: AutosFull Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) closed its $1 billion securitization transaction backed by utility receivables that was managed by ABN AMRO Bank and Calyon Securities.

In one of the largest refinancings ever, GMAC said that it had completed a more than $60 billion rescue effort to improve the liquidity of its struggling subsidiary, mortgage lender Residential Capital.

Standard & Poor's today lowered its financial strength ratings on Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. to 'AA' from 'AAA' and placed the ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications.

Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service, and Standard & Poor’s each entered into an identical cooperation agreement today with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo with the intent of restoring confidence and credibility to the mortgage markets.

Standard Chartered Bank, headquartered in London and Singapore, launched a new branch in Paris last Thursday.

Fixed mortgage rates were virtually unchanged while ARM rates fell, according to Freddie Mac's latest Mortgage Rate Survey.

Moody’s Investors Services has placed MBIA Insurance Corp.’s 'Aaa' insurance financial strength ratings on review for possible downgrade.

The Senate Banking Committee plans to hold a hearing next Tuesday to examine underwriting practices at some of the top investment banks, according to Reuters.

A subsidiary of MetLife will buy the unit of residential mortgage business of First Horizon National Corp., a deal which includes more than 230 retail and wholesale offices nationwide.

Fremont General Corp. today completed the sale to Litton Loan Servicing of the remaining mortgage servicing rights on its $12.2 billion serviced loan portfolio.

Bulltick Capital Markets appointed Alberto Bernal-León as head of fixed income research.

Residental Capital, the mortgage lending unit of GMAC, said today that it needs as much as $1.4 billion in cash by the end of June in order to meet liquidity demands, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Centerline Holding Co., the parent company of Centerline Capital Group announced that J. Larry Duggins, executive managing director inenterline’s commercial real estate group, is retiring from Centerline and the commercial real estate industry by June 30. Duggins plans to attend divinity school at Southern Methodist University and devote his time to helping launch non-profit youth-oriented foundations. Duggins founded RemiCAP, the predecessor to ARCap.

Activity may be down sharply in CDOs, but there could be early signs of life returning to the CLO market, which in turn may signal a pickup in demand for leveraged loans in coming months, according to a market participant who is involved with trust services for the securitization market.

Italy might be closer than ever to issuing a covered bond, said panelists at the covered bond panel the ongoing Global ABS conference being held in Cannes.

Chief Executive Kerry Killinger will step down as chairman of Washington Mutual.

Gatten Sadowski hired Christopher Mellia as a senior analyst for ABS structured products.