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Fitch Ratings has appointed John Bonfiglio as head of U.S. structured finance, expanding his role to overseeing the RMBS team in addition to his existing executive responsibilities for the CMBS and ABS groups. He will pick up those responsibilities from Gloria Aviotti, who is group managing director and head of global structured finance.

Babson Capital Europe has closed a €500 million ($646 million) collateralized loan obligation, Duchess VII, with what is believed to be the tightest pricing down to the BB-/Ba3 level.

An expected increase in defualts in the European leveraged finance market could spell trouble for collateralized loan and debt obligations that have been feasting on those deals.

Ontario-based Dundee Wealth Management has added Volkan Kurtas and Moritz Hilf of HypoVereinsbank to its newly formed structured credit asset management company.

Toronto based-DBRS has chosen Lewtan Technologies to help grow its presence in the European structured finance market. The ratings agency will use Lewtan’s ABSNet and ABSNet Cash Flows services to tailor its analytics and rapidly create a ratings platform for asset-backed securities. DBRS currently maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, and Paris and plans to continue its expansion into Europe as its business grows.

Elgin Capital, a London-based hedge fund manager, is preparing a €400 million ($520.5 million) European collateralized loan obligation.

Merrill Lynch won a loan auctioned off by Franklin Templeton Wednesday with a winning bid of 101 3/4.

The Bank of Korea left interest rates unchanged at 4.5% for the sixth consecutive month. Despite low inflation, consumer spending has slugged leading to a moderate growth rate of 0.8% in the fourth quarter.

Markit has launched HYBRIX, a derivative index based on agency hybrid adjustable rate mortgages. HYBRIX will allow market participants to take short positions on the securities. "It's the first time in the history of the adjustable rate mortgage market that you can actually short ARMs," said Sami Boustany, executive director at investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Societe Generale Asset Management’s (SGAM) recently launched high-yield asset-backed securities fund is seeing strong growth, according to HedgeWorld. The fund, which invests primarily in high-yield ABS, is the first of its kind in France. It currently has about EUR30 million under management and SGAM expects the assets in the fund will grow to about EUR100 million by sometime in the spring. "We believe this fund can eventually grow to between 300 million and 500 million euros, because we are seeing strong demand, particularly from investors with total return targets," says Guy Lodewyckx, head of short-term and asset-backed securities portfolio management at SGAM. The fund is looking to earn about 200 basis points above the Euro OverNight Index Average (EONIA), net of management fees, and is being marketed to corporate and institutional investors. SGAM currently manages about EUR10 billion in ABS.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s final guidance on Reg AB item 1122 fell in line the proposal set forth by the American Securitization Forum, much to the relief of the industry.

The loan-only credit default swaps of Freescale Semiconductor tightened about 10 basis points this week to trade around 80-85 on repricing news; The Cedar Fair term loan is down after word of a repricing. Bear Stearns is looking to take pricing down 50 basis points to LIBOR plus 2 1/2%, which has caused the tranche to trade around 101 1/8; and The loan-only credit default swaps of Lear Corp. were active earlier on the week following news Carl Icahn offered to buy the rest of the company he doesn't already own.