Issuers Chasing Bad-Mortgage Portfolios (08/13/2010)
Arch Bay Capital and Kondaur Capital are among the leading bidders for a large portfolio of nonperforming mortgages that Flagstar Bank is shopping - assets the shops are eyeing as future bond collateral.
Read more.
UBS Nabs Mulford for Mortgage-Bond Role (06/04/2010)
Ken Mulford, best known for his role in securitizing subprime mortgages at the now-defunct Ameriquest, arrived at UBS this week - the latest sign of the bank's ambitions to rebuild its once-active securitization-banking business in the U.S.
Read more.
Deutsche Takes Aim at Student-Loan Assets (04/23/2010)
Deutsche Bank intends to expand its role in the student-loan industry - both by purchasing an education lender and by picking up loan portfolios from companies that plan to exit the rapidly evolving marketplace.
Read more.
Skepticism Surrounds Trups-Buying Strategy (02/26/2010)
Two Highland Capital partners are trying to purchase trust-preferred securities issued by a bank they partially own - shares that currently reside in the underlying portfolio of a collateralized debt obligation.
Read more.
Dynamic Credit Layoffs Reflect CDO Retreat (01/15/2010)
Dynamic Credit Partners, once an active issuer of collateralized debt obligations, laid off portfolio manager Dan Nigro and trader Chris Sandleitner last week amid an ongoing shift in its business.
Read more.
Accounting Relief Seen in Conduit Tweak (12/11/2009)
Companies that rely on commercial-paper conduits for funding are getting innovative in a late-year scramble to make sure their receivables continue to receive off-balance-sheet treatment.
Read more.
Marathon Raises Eyebrows With CLO Re-Buy (11/06/2009)
Marathon Asset Management pocketed millions of dollars over the past few months by buying back securities from a collateralized debt obligation it issued in 2005 and then retiring them at higher prices.
Read more.
Conduit Distribution Pros Face Downsizing (10/09/2009)
----------
CORRECTION: Credit Suisse insists that it has no plans to downsize or eliminate its asset-backed commercial paper distribution desk, contrary to what appeared in the Oct. 9 article "Conduit Distribution Pros Face Downsizing."
Read more.
MBS Losses Grow Murky as Defaults Rocket (09/11/2009)
----------
CORRECTION: The July mortgage-bond defaults cited in a Sept. 11 article, "MBS Losses Grow Murky as Defaults Rocket," included classes of bonds that S&P had earlier downgraded to "D" and then confirmed at that rating during the month. Of the 2,996 defaulted tranches, 881 had their ratings lowered in July, compared to 289 in July 2008. The rest of the July 2009 tally consisted of confirmations of previous downgrades. In the first seven months of this year, S&P downgraded 7,233 tranches of home-loan securities to "D" while confirming such ratings for 7,624 classes.
----------
Read more.
US Set for Pivotal Capital-Reserve Ruling (08/14/2009)
U.S. government officials are aiming for September to decide once and for all how banks' capital reserves should reflect a tidal wave of securitized assets that are headed for their balance sheets.
Read more.
PPIP Managers Hit With One-Month Setback (08/07/2009)
The U.S. Treasury Department has quietly notified the nine asset-management groups chosen to set up funds under its Public-Private Investment Program that the effort's timetable has been pushed back by at least a month.
Read more.
Fed Weighing Revisions for TALF Haircuts (07/31/2009)
The Federal Reserve is thinking about increasing the down payments it requires from investors that buy certain types of bonds with financing from its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.
Read more.
Government Aid Keeps Supply on Even Keel (07/03/2009)
Worldwide securitization activity is set to build ever so slightly in the next six months with continued central-bank support, as annual issuance volume heads toward its lowest point since 2002.
Read more.
Banks Get Jump on Possible TALF Expansion (06/05/2009)
Mortgage lenders have started approaching rating agencies with securitization pools that they think might qualify for an expanded version of the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.
Read more.
BofA Unable to Clear Subprime Threshold (05/29/2009)
Even as other credit-card lenders rush to sell bonds for use in the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, Bank of America is worried such a move would leave it with an unwanted stigma.
Read more.
Momentum Building for TALF's June Round (05/15/2009)
Structured-product issuers are lining up an estimated $15 billion to $20 billion of deals for the next monthly installment in the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility.
Read more.
TALF Distribution Raises Buyers' Hackles (05/08/2009)
As the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility produced its third monthly wave of bond offerings this week, some investors were grumbling that they never got a fair shot at the deals.
Read more.
Bankruptcy Threat Hits Chrysler, GM Bonds (04/03/2009)
President Obama's threat to push Chrysler and General Motors into bankruptcy has all but ruled out the possibility of those companies securitizing auto loans anytime soon, while scaring off secondary-market buyers of their bonds.
Read more.
More Issuers Scramble as Card Payments Lag (03/06/2009)
Deteriorating borrower performance has forced American Express, Citigroup and First National Bank of Omaha to divert cashflows from securitized credit cards into special reserve accounts - and more drastic moves could follow.
Read more.
Rating Downgrades Swamp Alt-A Bonds (02/27/2009)
----------
CORRECTION: A Feb. 27 article, "Rating Downgrades Swamp Alt-A Bonds," mischaracterized the volume of alternative-A mortgage bonds held by State Street Global Advisors. The firm owns $234 million of such securities, accountin
Read more.
Vegas Crowd Torn by Uncle Sam's Role (02/13/2009)
Many securitization professionals came away from this week's big industry gathering in Las Vegas feeling conflicted and increasingly nervous about the U.S. government's expanding role in the market.
Read more.
Spread Tightening Seen as Short-Lived Trend (01/16/2009)
----------
CORRECTION: A Jan. 16 article, "Spread Tightening Seen as Short-Lived Trend," incorrectly stated that Ford had received support from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The automaker hasn't a
Read more.
Citi, Morgan Stanley Speeding Up Retreat (11/21/2008)
----------
CORRECTION: A Nov. 21 article, "Citi, Morgan Stanley Speeding Up Retreat," contained errors. The item overstated layoffs within John Wood's analytics group, which was reduced to 19 people from 27. In the mortgage-finance div
Read more.
Looming Regulatory Wave Vexes Industry (11/14/2008)
Securitization professionals are getting worried that the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January will usher in an onslaught of regulatory constraints that they've been able to beat back in the past.
Read more.
Confidence Creeping Back Into CP Sector (10/17/2008)
The asset-backed commercial paper market showed signs of recovery this week, as sweeping government efforts to bolster financial markets made investors more comfortable with longer-term conduit issues.
Read more.
Bailout Candidates Hashing Out Strategies (10/10/2008)
Industry players are increasingly singling out Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo as candidates to benefit from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Read more.
Volume Decline Saps Bookrunner Competition (10/03/2008)
A shift in the competitive landscape for underwriters of asset- and mortgage-backed securities has accelerated in the past three months, as investment banks increasingly concentrate on managing deals for affiliates.
Read more.
Banks Join Forces in Covered-Bond Effort (09/12/2008)
Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo have teamed up to draft a blueprint for covered-bond issues in the U.S., an uncommon move for institutions that are usually engaged in heated competition.
Read more.
League Tables Point to Bookrunner Shakeout (06/27/2008)
A year after the structured-finance market entered its worst-ever downturn, it has become increasingly apparent which banks still want to be major players in the business - and which ones don't.
Read more.
RBS Takes Scalpel to ABN Amro Org Chart (04/18/2008)
Royal Bank of Scotland just laid off a number of securitization professionals from ABN Amro, finally moving forward with cuts that have been looming since it bought the Amsterdam institution's wholesale-banking division last year.
Read more.
Fund Blowups Clobbering Secondary Market (03/14/2008)
The secondary market for asset- and mortgage-backed securities felt another bout of pain in recent days, as the holdings of a troubled Carlyle Group hedge fund flooded into the market and credit-crunch-related fears kept buyers at bay.
Read more.
Dym Exits CIFG as Insurance Biz Struggles (02/29/2008)
Bond insurer CIFG has rearranged the leadership of its structured-finance team, amid ongoing worries about exposures the group took on asset- and mortgage-backed bonds of questionable quality.
Read more.
Outlook Sags Under Weighty Writedowns (01/18/2008)
Any hopes that structured-product values would improve in the near future were dashed this week, as market players reported writedowns that set disappointingly low pricing benchmarks.
Read more.
