The rating service’s proposal to notch ratings assigned by rival firms when assessing insurers didn’t sit well with the Justice Department, members of Congress and industry participants.

The consumer sectors to watch out for include student loans, subprime auto and retail credit cards, according to Fitch Ratings.

The two biggest sectors in the ABS market — vehicle loans and business finance — saw solid gains in issuance in early 2022. GM Financial was the top issuer; Barclays Capital was the top underwriter. (Includes two data charts.)

S&P has proposed revisions to its criteria for judging the adequacy of risk-based capital when assessing insurers. The revision would prompt higher capital requirements for certain MBS and ABS held by insurers.

All of the participants in the Fed’s TALF program set up in the early days of the pandemic were so-called opportunistic investors that hadn’t previously been buying AAA-rated deals.

The Structured Finance Association is evaluating the most popular corporate ESG frameworks to see how they could be applied in the securitization industry.

Fannie’s CEO is set to retire. The GSE chair is departing as well; Waterfall Asset Management launches non-agency MBS with Ginnie EBOs; hurricanes impacting performance of solar ABS.

MBS and ABS tied to floating-rate assets could see rising delinquencies as interest rates increase. Inflation also remains a concern, though Fitch and Moody’s suggest that most deals can weather the storm.

A new SEC proposal wouldn’t set climate-related disclosures for MBS and ABS, though such standards are still under consideration.

A subsidiary of Entergy Corp. is offering a $290.0 million securitization backed by system restoration charges on electric customers to help pay for recoveries from storms in southeast Texas in recent years.