On May 1, the Federal Reserve Board announced the expansion of the TALF program to include commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and securities backed by insurance premium finance as eligible collateral, with the first subscription date scheduled for late June.  In addition to the Public-Private Investment Program, the expansion is designed to address potential defaults on commercial properties while supporting the issuance of new loans.  [Read more →]

By its Interim Guidance issued in April 2009, The Office of Management and Budget (”OMB”) has significantly clarified the meaning of the President’s March 20, 2009 Memorandum setting rules for registered lobbyists’ contacts with federal officials involved in Recovery Act funding.  As shown in the linked copies below, OMB’s Interim Guidance includes descriptions, definitions and a set of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”). [Read more →]

Created by the Economic Stabilization Act or 2008, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (“SIGTARP”) has the powers to audit and investigate TARP awards and to make recommendations to the Treasury Department on how it should manage TARP programs.  Acting with the attention of the Congress, oversight over Treasury, the authority to deal directly with TARP recipients, and the required cooperation of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal and state law enforcement, SIGTARP Neil Barofsky has a broad jurisdiction and extensive powers.  While his formal power of compulsion ends with court-enforced subpoenas and he must refer criminal matters for prosecution to the Department of Justice, in two months of activity, he has initiated 20 criminal investigations, audited the use of TARP funds and the executive compensation of its 364 recipients, and set a schedule of audits and investigations across the spectrum of TARP programs. [Read more →]

The New York Fed has announced that the next TALF subscription date will be May 5, with loan settlement dates on May 12.  As always, interested borrowers may obtain a pre-certification review by the New York Fed in advance of the next subscription date by having their primary dealer submit their name and details of the loan desired. [Read more →]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed by the President on February 17, 2009. The new law is divided into a Division A regarding stimulus funding amounts and requirements, and a Division B primarily regarding tax issues.  [Read more →]

On November 24, 2008, the Federal Reserve Board announced the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a Federal Reserve credit facility authorized under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, which is designed to encourage lending to consumers and small businesses by providing non-recourse loans to participants who currently own certain credit card, student, auto and similar asset-backed securities (ABS) to issue new ABS.  The goal is to reinvigorate the ABS market, which is expected to stimulate lending to small businesses and consumers. [Read more →]

Part of Anticipated Comprehensive Federal Regulatory Reform

For the last several months, different members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees and Financial and Banking Services Committees have proposed bills regulating the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. Recently, the Obama Administration has proposed comprehensive Federal regulatory reform that includes a comprehensive framework  for the oversight and protection and disclosure of the OTC derivatives market.  [Read more →]

Part of Anticipated Comprehensive Federal Regulatory Reform

The Obama Administration’s proposed comprehensive Federal regulatory reform to address the gaps and weaknesses that have been exposed over the past 18 months in the existing regulatory system for the financial markets is beginning to take form.  In testimony last week before the House Committee on Financial Services, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained the need for “comprehensive reform.  Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game.  The new rules must be simpler and more effectively enforced and produce a more stable system, that protects consumers and investors, that rewards innovation and that is able to adapt and evolve with changes in the financial market.”  [Read more →]

On March 23, 2009, the Treasury – in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve – announced the initial details of its Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) which is designed to (i) remove toxic real estate loans and securities from the balance sheets of U.S. depositary institutions, which include banks and thrifts (Participant Banks), (ii) rejuvenate real estate credit markets and (iii) restart the real estate loan securitization market. PPIP is divided into two programs, (a) the Legacy Loans Program dealing with residential and commercial real estate loans held by Participant Banks and (b) the Legacy Securities Program dealing with commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) and residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS). [Read more →]

On March 23, 2009, the Treasury – in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve – announced the initial details of its Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) which is designed to (i) remove toxic real estate loans and securities from the balance sheets of U.S. depositary institutions, both large and small, which are insured by the FDIC (Participant Banks), (ii) rejuvenate real estate credit markets and (iii) restart the real estate loan securitization market. PPIP is divided into two programs, (a) the Legacy Loans Program dealing with residential and commercial real estate loans held by Participant Banks, and (b) the Legacy Securities Program dealing with residential and commercial mortgage backed securities which were originally issued prior to 2009 and are presently held by Participant Banks. [Read more →]