GE's TALF Eligible Deal Launches At 1-Mo Libor +210BPS

General Electric Co.'s (GE) $1 billion credit card loan backed deal has launched, according to a term sheet Tuesday.

The deal, eligible for funding under the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, is expected to be sold later Tuesday, the loan application deadline for funding under the program.

It launched at 210 basis points over one month London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Other TALF eligible deals scheduled to be sold are motorcycle company Harley Davidson Inc.'s (HOG) $500 million deal, Honda Motor Co.'s (HMC) auto-loan-backed $1.75 billion bond, CNH Global N.V.'s (CNH) equipment loan-backed $1 billion deal and General Electric's (GE) $1 billion credit-card-backed deal.

Eligible new issuance stands at about $11 billion, a notable increase over issuance seen in the first two months of the TALF, when investor wariness kept many on the sidelines.

The spurt in issuance of TALF-eligible deals and the subsequent increases in size of these bonds are signs that investors have finally warmed up to the Fed's consumer lending program.

"There is an upsizing on most of the deals, showing that TALF is a success," said Dan Nigro, an asset-backed securities portfolio manager at Dynamic Credit Partners in New York.

Despite the "cumbersome paperwork" there are "lots of benefits once you have been through the process," he said, noting that investors can get attractive returns once they get the nonrecourse loans from the Fed to buy newly created asset-backed securities.

Deals from Honda, Volkswagen AG (VLKAY) and CNH were all increased in size.

On Monday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) sold its $5 billion credit-card-loan-backed deal at 155 basis points over the one-month London interbank offered rate. This was the largest TALF- eligible bond so far.

TALF is aimed at jump-starting consumer lending.

Investors apply for loans to finance bonds backed by credit cards, student loans, and other consumer loans once a month. Issuers have clustered bond sales around the loan application deadline, which is the first Tuesday of the month.

The Fed will accept loan applications between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., EDT, and will release information about how much investors applied for later Tuesday.

TALF-eligible issuance stood at $8.2 billion in March and just $2.57 billion in April.

-By Anusha Shrivastava, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2371; [e-mail]