Securitization

Despite what seems like an almost nonexistent CDO market, bank balance sheet CLOs are still garnering investor interest, according to sources.

Rumors circulating around the market suggest the possibility of bailout plans by a bank consortium as well as potential reinsurance contracts to aid struggling guarantors. Last week Warren Buffett even went as far as to make a public offer to reinsure $800 billion in municipal bonds that are currently insured by Ambac, MBIA and FGIC.

Falling prices are forcing total-rate-of-return market-value CLOs to liquidate their underlying assets. These unwinding CLOs could present opportunities for investors, but could also drive prices down even further. And sources say the loan market has already hit historical lows.

While Mexico's structured finance has ground to a halt amid the generalized anxiety in the debt markets, Standard & Poor's offered a few forecasts for the market

Standard Chartered was set to finalize the $7.2 billion liquidity injection to its troubled SIV called Whistlejacket. However, deeper losses in the underlying collateral have reversed the SIV's good fate.

Credit card ABS issuers poured significantly greater amounts of new paper into the securitization market so far this year. From January through Feb. 11, about $19 billion in card ABS deals were completed, according to the ASR Scorecard database. Other industry tallies put issuance at about $13 billion, but either figure easily outpaces the $10 billion that was done in the same period the year before.

The plan constructed by six major mortgage lenders to aid homeowners and stem the flow of foreclosures has been met with skepticism by market participants. They are questioning the extent to which the proposal will actually help troubled borrowers.

The first securitization deal from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region - a 280 million ($408 million) auto leasing deal for Raiffeisen Leasing Polska, the Polish leasing subsidiary of Raiffeisen International - closed earlier this month.

The emerging markets of Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States witnessed a 23% drop in structured finance issuance last year to $7.69 billion, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service.

ERMBX.UK, the index designed to reference synthetic U.K. prime MBS, looked set for an early launch a few weeks ago, with market reports indicating that the new index could go live earlier than the ECMBX.

The reconstruction of the securitization market took another turn last week as a collective group of European securitization market associations outlined a three-pronged initiative aimed at improving market transparency.

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues JPMorgan Securities 2,081.3 1 23.649 4 Wachovia Securities 1,763.8 2 20.041 3 Goldman Sachs 1,581.1 3 17.965 3 ABN AMRO 906.7 4 10.302 2 Citigroup Global Markets 836.7 5 9.507 2 RBS Greenwich Capital 744.5 6 8.459 1 Credit Suisse 625.0 7 7.102 1 Banc of America Securities 261.8 8 2.975 1 Industry Total 8,800.9 - 100.0 8 Source: ASR Scorecard database

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Morgan Stanley 1,281.3 1 57.1 2 Citigroup Global Markets 617.0 2 27.5 1 Lehman Brothers 344.7 3 15.4 1 Industry Total 2,242.9 - 100.0 4 Source: ASR Scorecard database

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Citigroup Global Markets 6,604.6 1 29.834 5 JPMorgan Securities 5,802.3 2 26.21 5 Banc of America Securities 5,300.0 3 23.941 7 Barclays Capital 1,521.2 4 6.872 3 Deutsche Bank Securities 1,512.7 5 6.833 2 Credit Suisse 896.0 6 4.047 1 Wachovia Securities 500.0 7 2.259 1 Industry Total 22,137.7 - 100.0 17 Source: ASR Scorecard database

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues Lehman Brothers 1,715.6 1 100.0 2 Industry Total 1,715.6 - 100.0 2 Source: ASR Scorecard database

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues JPMorgan Securities 1,013.3 1 20.994 2 Banc of America Securities 1,013.3 1 20.994 2 Deutsche Bank Securities 764.4 3 15.837 2 Barclays Capital 764.4 3 15.837 2 RBS Greenwich Capital 760.2 5 15.75 1 Citigroup Global Markets 511.2 6 10.591 1 Industry Total 4,826.6 - 100.0 3 Source: ASR Scorecard database

Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Joe Walsh as global co-head of credit markets, Americas. Previously, Walsh was head of mortgage and asset-backed trading, origination and finance at RBS Greenwich Capital. He will run the business with Euan Hamilton, who will also take on a new role as global head of leverage finance across senior loans, second lien, mezzanine, high-yield bonds and paid-in-kind instruments. Among other appointments, RBS announced that Stephen Eighteen and Mark Fineman will become the new global heads of real estate finance. Previously, Eighteen ran the business for the U.K., Europe and Asia while Fineman served as head of real estate finance and secularization at RBS Greenwich Capital. Eighteen will also run credit market origination in Europe with Mike Nawas. Nawas was formerly head of structured finance at ABN Amro. He will also serve as the global head of corporate and structured debt capital markets, corporate loan markets origination and emerging markets. Continuing the streak of job changes at the bank, RBS tapped Al Sinsheimer to run European financial institutions sales and George Davala to run the same business in the Americas. Sinsheimer is currently head of debt market financial institutions sales at RBS in London. Davala was head of ABS and liquid product sales at RBS Greenwich Capital in the U.S. The appointments will go into effect after regulatory approval of the RBS and ABN Amro merger.

ABN AMRO and Dutch pension administrator PGGM have closed a synthetic CLO referencing a portfolio originated by ABN Brazilian unit Banco Real, according to a press release by the European bank. Named after the celebrated Iguacu waterfalls, the deal references a pool amounting to a notional $850 million. The credit risk of the portfolio is shared by participating credits in the first and second loss tranches of the CLO, the release said.

None of the MBS or auto loan deals that have come out of Russia, Kazakhstan or the Ukraine has reported losses through the end of 2007, according to a performance report by Moody's Investors Service. RMBS delinquencies remain low as well, with four of 10 outstanding deals showing levels below 0.3%.

Full Credit to Book (Equal if Joint) U.S. Public ABS Market/144A Market Managers Proceeds (mils) Rank Mkt. Share # of Issues JPMorgan Securities 1,578.8 1 23.378 3 Wachovia Securities 1,223.8 2 18.121 2 Goldman Sachs 1,078.7 3 15.972 2 ABN Amro 906.7 4 13.426 2 RBS Greenwich Capital 744.5 5 11.024 1 Credit Suisse 625.0 6 9.254 1 Citigroup Global Markets 334.2 7 4.949 1 Banc of America Securities 261.8 8 3.877 1 Industry Total 6,753.5 - 100.0 6 Source: ASR Scorecard database