Bingham, Mayer Top Law Firm Rankings (01/13/2012)
Mayer Brown squeaked by Bingham McCutchen as the securitization industry’s most active issuer counsel last year, though Bingham retained its title as top underwriter counsel.
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Issuers Asked to Pay for Quality Label (11/11/2011)
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe and the European Financial Services Round Table are entering the final stages of an effort to develop a “quality label” for securitizations.
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Mariner Teeing Up Mortgage-Bond Vehicle (11/04/2011)
Fixed-income fund operator Mariner Investment is about to launch a vehicle focused on mortgage-backed securities, replicating a strategy that has generated double-digit returns for the firm’s multi-strategy hedge funds.
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Agency MBS Repackagings On the Table (10/21/2011)
A government proposal that calls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to add unguaranteed subordinate classes to their mortgage-bond issues could spawn yet another new product: resecuritizations of the junior securities.
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ASF Angles to Block Franken Amendment (09/09/2011)
A much-maligned SEC rule designed to spur unsolicited grades on structured products ultimately could prove preferable to the transformation of the rating process envisioned by a controversial amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act.
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Risk-Retention Fight Turns to Military Impact (08/05/2011)
Opponents of proposed risk-retention rules for mortgage securitizations are expanding their lobbying efforts to embrace a potentially persuasive argument: That the regulations would cut off financing for military families.
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FDIC Official Dampens Covered-Bond Push (06/24/2011)
Martin Gruenberg, widely viewed as President Obama’s top choice to lead the FDIC, has taken a stand on pending covered-bond legislation that is antithetical to the industry players’ positions.
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Regulators Give In on Risk-Retention Rule (05/06/2011)
The six federal regulators that unveiled a sweeping risk-retention proposal on March 29 have backed away from a key provision that market players saw as the biggest threat to securitization.
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Banks Sound Alarms Over Consumer Bureau (04/08/2011)
Banks that want to set up mortgage conduits are suddenly wondering if their efforts could be hindered by a yet-to-be-issued directive from a U.S. government agency that still doesn’t exist.
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Bankers Puzzled Over Brief S&P Watch List (01/28/2011)
Industry participants no longer see a major threat in efforts by S&P to determine whether stricter swap-counterparty requirements might lead to downgrades of asset- and mortgage-backed bonds — but they may not be completely out of the woods.
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BofA, Citi Draw Flak for Trading Tactics (01/21/2011)
Bargain hunters are grumbling that Bank of America and Citigroup have been stepping in at the last second to buy pieces of their own clients’ bid lists — but many market players say there’s nothing wrong with the practice.
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Waterfall Back in Capital-Raising Mode (12/03/2010)
Waterfall Asset Management is pushing to raise another $600 million for a hedge fund that buys nonperforming home loans, rehabilitates them and then securitizes some of the credits.
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Truce at Hand Between Underwriters, S&P (10/29/2010)
S&P has proposed new wording for the paperwork underwriters must sign when hiring it to rate mortgage bonds - a change that could help the agency resolve a standoff with those institutions.
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Lloyds, Nationwide Keep UK Supply Flowing (09/24/2010)
Look for Lloyds Banking and Nationwide Building Society to race out securitizations of fresh U.K. mortgages, now that RBS has placed a huge transaction at some of the lowest yields since the onset of the credit crisis.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Conduit Distribution Pros Face Downsizing (10/09/2009)
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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."
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MBS Losses Grow Murky as Defaults Rocket (09/11/2009)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Rating Downgrades Swamp Alt-A Bonds (02/27/2009)
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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
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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.
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Spread Tightening Seen as Short-Lived Trend (01/16/2009)
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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
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Citi, Morgan Stanley Speeding Up Retreat (11/21/2008)
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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
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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.
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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.
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