A new OnPoint from Dechert’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation team discusses a recent ruling from a federal court in the Southern District of New York. There, a pension plan that had acquired notes issued by a vehicle invested in a pool of sub-prime residential mortgage-backed securities is arguing that the vehicle’s assets are “plan assets” … Continue Reading
This is all about the difficulty of taking the punch bowl away from a roaring good party. Over the past several weeks a number of major banks folded under enormous pressure from the US DOJ to settle fraud claims resulting from the sale of bonds prior to the financial crisis of 2008. The allegations here … Continue Reading
And now to return to our commentary a few weeks back about the stultifying impact of ill-thought through rules and regulations (at best) (Brexit has intervened). This is our Regulatory State which broadly attempted to pick winners and losers and modify market behavior, to get an engineered outcome by using the blunderbuss of proscriptive rules … Continue Reading
We thought it would be useful to give a quick, interim update on the slow-motion train wreck that is our industry’s response to the upcoming effectiveness of the Risk Retention Rule. For those of you who have been blessedly snoozing under a rock these past couple of years, the Risk Retention Rule becomes effective on … Continue Reading
A bill was recently introduced in the Senate that could result in the wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under the bi-partisan “Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013”, recently introduced by Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be replaced by a new agency, … Continue Reading
Arguably the largest gathering of capital markets professionals in the world, ASF 2013 had over 5,300 registrants as of Monday morning according to Tom Deutsch, Executive Director, American Securitization Forum. Vegas is bustling and it’s always a pleasure to conveniently be out of town when there’s messy weather back east.… Continue Reading
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) is currently charged with defining a “Qualified Mortgage” (a “QM”). The federal banking agencies, the SEC, the FHFA and the Department of HUD are jointly charged with defining a “Qualified Residential Mortgage” (a “QRM”), and the QRM definition cannot be any broader than the QM definition. A narrowly … Continue Reading
The American Securitization Forum (ASF) Conference returned to Las Vegas on Sunday after short stints in DC and Orlando. As you may recall, the Conference’s last hurrah in Vegas in 2009 was not well received by the Fourth Estate – the juxtaposition of investment bankers meeting in Sin City with the then-recent creation of the … Continue Reading
Ah, baby is one. I remember when mine was — complete with an over-the-top celebration for an infant who had no idea what was going on and would remember nothing of it. The food, the drink, the fancy cake, the ridiculous crown… I chalk it up to a rite of passage for a parent to throw … Continue Reading
ASF 2011 kicked off yesterday, February 6, at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Dechert attorneys Malcolm Dorris, Ralph Mazzeo, Patrick Dolan, John Timperio, Cindy Williams, Andrew Pontano, Lorien Golaski and I are hosting a cocktail party for clients and friends here this evening. Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on … Continue Reading
The final day of ABS East in Miami closed on Tuesday late afternoon and we’re back home with no suntans. Those of us who didn’t overdo it on Monday evening (we won’t mention names) started Day 3 at a panel discussion titled “Lessons from the Financial Crisis: Required Steps for Rebuilding the Investor Base and … Continue Reading
Dechert has assembled a team to cover the latest legislative and regulatory developments affecting the CMBS, RMBS, and ABS markets. Each Dechert Securitization Update provides timely information on these developments. For a discussion of several recent legislative and regulatory developments that will shape the future of the securitization markets, please see the latest Securitization Update … Continue Reading
