Securitization

Auto ABS performance diverged during 1Q12, Moody's Investors Service said in its latest quarterly auto loan, auto lease and auto floorplan sector updates.

Regulators still haven’t done enough to exempt some of the biggest buyers of corporate loans from onerous reporting requirements that go into effect next year.

Trafigura Securitization Finance's (TSF) series 2012-1 is in the market. The offering is backed by a pool of trade receivables originated by Trafigura Beheer B.V., Trafigura Pte. (Singapore), and Trafigura AG, according to Standard & Poor's.

Legacy last-cash-flow CMBS spreads rallied following the Federal Reserve’s Maiden Lane III auction on Thursday last week to finish the week unchanged on average, according to a report released today from FTN Financial.This happened after spreads widened by about ten basis points earlier in the week.Last Thursday the Federal Reserve Bank of New York held an auction and sold the entirety of the MAX CDO holdings from its ML III portfolio to Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank Securities. For the full story on the bidding process, please click here.With senior-subordinate or “AJ” tranches comprising almost half of the CDOs' underlying assets, the market's ability to absorb the roughly $7.9 billion in CMBS without considerable market disruption was "an impressive show of strength for the sector in general," according to FTN.The firm's daily regression showed that legacy CMBS spreads are close to two standard deviations cheap at current levels with an R-Square of 89%. This analysis predicts legacy CMBS spreads by using measures that track the ABX and Standard & Poor's REIT indices as well as the spread on 'A'-rated financials.At current levels, FTN's analysis showed the last-cash-flow legacy CMBS to be 50 basis points “cheap” on average.

Fannie Mae and Citibank officials were developing a principal reduction pilot program that was supposed to go live in July 2010 when it was “mysteriously” stopped and later terminated, according to congressional investigators.

The real estate owned-to-rental niche currently may be "the world's biggest $0 billion industry," as Rick Sharga of Carrington Mortgage Services said at the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas, but it should start to grow.

The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate reversed course and is close to the highest reading of all time, according to the CMBS data provider. This happens just two months after matching its lowest reading in a year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is turning its sights on companies’ in-house and outside lawyers for obstructing investigations and for green-lighting questionable mortgage bond deals, The Wall Street Journal reported this morning.

Industry veteran Tony Renzi, who joined Freddie Mac last spring as part of a major organization at the GSE, has resigned from the company effective May 11, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

The Four Seasons debt restructuring took another step toward resolution last week with the announcement that the private equity company Terra Firma will fully acquire the second largest for-profit provider of elderly and specialist care services in the U.K.

While still a shadow of its former self, the bond insurance industry is showing signs of revival amid a pickup in issuance of deals backed by riskier assets.

It's harder to get financing to warehouse loans for a CLO these days.

A recent story on Bloomberg reported that Treasury officials are leaning toward a specific option outlined in 2011's white paper on the future of the GSEs. While their preferred option is impractical and unworkable, I believe that Fannie and Freddie can be restructured to serve as the foundation for a new mortgage system backed by private capital.

Fitch Ratings caused a stir last month when Credit Suisse dropped the firm's rating of an RMBS because it took a more critical view of the deal than two of its rivals.

Two and a half years ago, regulators opened the door for rating agencies to offer ratings or commentary on credits even when they haven't been hired to do so. Since then, all NRSROs can access detailed transaction data that issuers are required to post on designated issuer Web sites. The intended effect: a side market in unsolicited ratings and commentary. The actual effect: not a single unsolicited rating and roughly 15 commentaries.

It has been more than nine months since Sekerbank introduced Turkey to covered bonds, and no one else has followed suit.

Regulations are making trade finance CDOs more attractive, but recent press buzz surrounding the market's potential appears to be overhyped and maybe a little amnesic.

The April 26 sale of Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets caused some disruption in CMBS spreads.

As issuance of CMBS ramps up again, so do concerns about the deterioration in the quality of loans used as collateral.

The expected increase in mortgage prepayments following changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP 2.0, has so far not reached the levels expected.