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Byline: Josep M. Colomer The U.S. electoral college is a medieval relic. For several centuries, many political communities in Europe and the Americas used electors chosen from different territorial and [...]

Sterling pounds A British beauty queen says she was told to pack on pounds for the upcoming Miss World competition an unexpected request, considering she's not rail-thin. 'I was a [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer-Gaffney A common denominator in housing finance reform is the importance of the role that the private-label RMBS market must play. While regulators seem keen to work with [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer It has been a month since the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began selling off its Maiden Lane II (ML II) BWIC list. However, the combination [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer European securitization market players will apparently put more 'skin-in-the-game' than their U.S. counterparts if U.S. regulatory requirements for risk retention move ahead as written. The objectives to [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer-Gaffney Although the Obama administration's white paper on housing finance reform came up short on details, it reemphasized the importance of the securitization market in the future of [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer-Gaffney Policy changes including the potential extension of the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in 2011 to all GSE loans can result in faster prepayment speeds on [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Odeon Capital Group expanded into the Midwest market by opening an office in Chicago and hiring a securitization expert to lead the new location's trading desk. Derek [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) announced hires to its now expanded merchant banking group. Keith Murray and David Sommer will lead two new leveraged finance [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The risk of non-calls in European RMBS was reignited last month when Portuguese bank Caixa Economica Montepio Geral said it would not exercise the scheduled call for [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The European ABS market 'shot out of the blocks' in early January with significant spread tightening in both 'on-' and 'off-the-run' names and across senior and subordinate [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Matrix Corporate Capital has completed the first stage of a fixed income build up, with the hire of senior team leaders in sales, trading and origination. Matrix [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The Obama administration set out a white paper recommending far-reaching changes in the regulation of OTC derivatives, but the proposals did not bring anything new to the [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The European Securitization Forum and Information Management Network chose a more somber setting - London - for this year's Global ABS gathering held last week. Market players [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer At the start of 2009, the formula that would save securitization began with government intervention. Six months down the line, the U.S. and European markets have seen [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer While much of the focus has been placed on U.S. and U.K. government initiatives, Continental Europe has also made strides to implement measures to alleviate the economic [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Long gone are the glory days of ABCP. These days, the muted activity in the market is mostly limited to government-supported programs or restructurings. Market sources said [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Barclays Capital analysts have found that structural 'surprises' in securitized deals found over the past several years have highlighted inefficiencies within transactions. In a report published last [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer At the American Securitization Forum's (ASF) conference last month held in Las Vegas, a survey presented in one of the panels showed that recovery for the U.S. [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer For three weeks now, better sentiment has prevailed in European ABS secondary market trading, where spread widening has stopped and triple-A spreads have tightened at a rapid [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The U.K. government has finally succumbed to calls for it to step in and ease the growing repossession rates. Last week a new initiative was launched aimed [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer In the time since the crisis unfolded, the U.K. government has been under criticism for not doing enough to stimulate a mortgage market revival. But it might [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Northern Rock's Granite Master Trust breached its non-asset trigger, because the current-seller share fell below the minimum on two consecutive distribution dates. The breach is the result [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer American politics took center stage last week, but the message President-elect Barack Obama had for U.S. citizens could be applied across Europe as well. It took nearly [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Monolines said they are still hopeful that they can find a niche in Europe via the municipal bond market, said speakers at the monoline panel at Information [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer As the U.S. works to put together its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson suggest that similar schemes are being crafted [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer At Information Management Network's first Cross Atlantic ABCP Summit held earlier this month, market panelists remained optimistic that, once the dust settles, investors will come back to [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The Bank of England (BofE) is looking less likely to extend the terms of its special liquidity scheme (SLS), which is due to end on Oct. 21. [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer The August pipeline remained quiet, but market sources said that there is some indication that investors are looking to put money to work. The problem is that, [...]

Byline: Nora Colomer Much has been said about the emergence of distressed funds taking advantage of buying opportunities in the European market. However, market analysts said that prices must go [...]

Spanish bank Santander confirmed a GBP1.3 billion proposed takeover of U.K. lender Alliance & Leicester last week. The proposed deal would give A&L a bigger financial platform that should bode [...]

It's looking more likely that the credit derivative product company (CDPC) Athilion Capital Corp. will be downgraded over the short term. Until now, CDPCs had been relatively unaffected by the [...]

The European Securitization Forum (ESF) and the Securities and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) hosted a seminar last week investigating the explosion in U.S. subprime litigation and what implication it had [...]

Hertz is slated to issue what will be its first securitization deal outside of the U.S. The 1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) International Fleet Financing 1 will be a multi-jurisdictional transaction [...]

Fitch Ratings said last week that the European ABCP market is bottoming out. Recent figures suggest that the worst of the ABCP market contraction is over. There are even signs [...]

Moody's Investors Service last week downgraded U.K. mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley's long-term ratings. The downgrade was based on the deteriorating asset quality on the bank's balance sheet, the obligation [...]

The European primary market remained as slow as ever last week. Deals continue to be originated for central bank repo collateral, and there is no indication of when primary market [...]

Over the past two years, the Islamic securitization market has grown dramatically, although its growth faces serious roadblocks if the legal issues surrounding how to achieve a true sale are [...]

The amendment of the legal framework for French SPVs is expected to significantly impact the structuring landscape of French securitizations, making transactions backed by higher yields - from the easier [...]

Last week nine European trade groups released 10 industry initiatives to make the securitization market more transparent. The move follows the European Council of Finance Ministers' (Ecofin) call in its [...]

The recent ratings action that saw Moody's Investors Service downgrade Ambac and MBIA to Aa3' and A2', respectively, and XL Capital Assurance/XL Financial Assurance to B2' from A3' is causing [...]

Hannover Re said last week that it had completed its first insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction. A special-purpose entity named Globe Re was established in Bermuda for this transaction, which is [...]

Since the onset of financial market turmoil in August 2007, the European Central Bank (ECB), in line with other major central banks, has significantly expanded its term liquidity management operations. [...]

The Information Management Network (IMN) and the European Securitization Forum (ESF) held a poll last week asking European market participants where to host the next Global ABS conference. The two [...]

Banks choosing against renewing liquidity facilities should have no impact on the credit quality of European CMBS transactions, analysts said. Barclays Capital's decision not to renew its liquidity facilities for [...]

The recent downgrade of U.K. mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has resulted in the breach of some triggers of its Aire Valley securitization master trust. The negative rating action could [...]

Funding giant U.K. mortgages via the securitization market is likely a thing of the past because the market won't prove as profitable, said industry players speaking at a panel on [...]

Although the European securitization market might not have seen the worst yet from the credit crisis, insurers who focus on instances of catastrophe are making strides. Insurance-linked trading volume is [...]

There was no red carpet laid out for the thousands of industry players that made it out to the Palais des Festivals et Des Congress in Cannes, the new home [...]

The European securitization investor psyche can be pretty hard to access given the limited opportunities they currently have. But as the market gears for a recovery, tailoring deals to the [...]