GE Offers $1.25 Billion Credit Card Loan-Backed Deal - Source

General Electric Co. (GE) is the latest company to offer a credit card loan-backed deal eligible for funding under a U.S. Federal Reserve program, according to a personal familiar with the matter.

The $1.25 billion deal, dubbed GE Capital Credit Card Master Trust Note, has RBS and Credit Suisse as joint leads.

The deal is among a clutch that have emerged ahead of next week's loan application deadline for the consumer loan backed portion of the central bank's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF. The sixth deadline for loan applications for this sector is Aug. 6.

A substantial portion of the consumer loan-backed deals sold this year were eligible for TALF. The program is credited with having thawed the securitization market and helping lower borrowing costs for consumers. Launched in March, it received a tepid welcome, but issuers and investors have since warmed to it, with many hoping it is extended past its scheduled expiration at the end of this year.

The Fed has recently also begun to offer attractive financing for new and existing commercial mortgage-backed loans in an effort to revive that sector. The next loan application deadline for the commercial-property portion is Aug. 20.

"It made sense that the initial focus of TALF was on the auto, credit-card and student-loan sectors so it could restart those markets," said Howard Chin, a portfolio manager at Guardian Investor Services in New York.

On Thursday, First National Bank of Omaha is marketing a single-tranche $500 million credit card loan-backed deal with a maturity of 2.93 years. The issue, dubbed FNMNT 09-3, is scheduled to price early next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. Joint leads on the deal are JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).

Wheels Inc. is offering a $703.3 million TALF-eligible fleet lease-backed deal, according to a person familiar with the deal. Price guidance is out on the issue, dubbed Wheels 2009-1. On the top-rated tranche worth $673.9 million and with a duration of one to 36 months, it is in the range of 165-175 basis points over the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor. Joint leads on the deal are Banc of America Securities and JP Morgan Chase.

Student lender SLM Corp. (SLM), better known as Sallie Mae, is also offering a TALF-eligible $1.68 billion student loan-backed deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal, dubbed SLM Student Loan Trust 2009-D, has Barclays Capital, Bank of America and JP Morgan as joint leads.

Issuance of asset-backed securities stands at nearly $80 billion this year, down from $126 billion at this time last year, according to Asset-Backed Alert, a trade publication. In July, eight TALF-eligible consumer loan-backed deals worth $12.079 billion were sold. Issuers included Honda Motor Co. (HMC), Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler Group LLC. In the previous month, 13 deals worth $16.4 billion were sold.

-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2227; [e-mail]