New York Fed Revises TALF Compliance, Eligibility Terms

A week before the Federal Reserve of New York launches its program to boost the asset-backed securities market, the central bank revised compliance terms for participating investors and refined definitions on the securities eligible for the program.

The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, commonly known as TALF, is one of several programs initiated by the Fed to help stabilize financial markets and stimulate lending. Through TALF, the Fed will extend one-year loans that will be secured by newly-created bonds backed by auto, credit card, student and small business loans. The bonds must have the highest triple-A rating.

The revisions issued Wednesday include compliance requirements on inspection and recourse if collateral is found ineligible, refined definitions of prime and subprime as it relates to auto asset-backed securities and refined eligibility criteria for bonds backed by dealer inventories.

The New York Fed said auto loan and lease-backed bonds will be considered prime if the weighted average FICO score of the receivables is 680 or greater. The FICO score is a number assigned to depict the credit quality of the borrower.

Receivables without a FICO score are assigned the minimum FICO score of 300 for this calculation, the Fed said on its Web site.

Credit card asset-backed securities are considered prime if at least 70% or more of the receivables have a FICO score greater than 660. FICO scores must reflect performance data within the last 120 days.

The program is set to launch on March 17 as the bank begins to accept applications for loans. The bank will begin disbursing funds on March 25.

More information on the revisions can be found on the New York Fed's Web site, http://www.newyorkfed.org/.

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