Banks Start New ABX to Bet on Subprime Mortgage Debt (Update1)

Securities houses are creating new ABX
derivative contracts that volition aid spread out the types of AAA rated
subprime-mortgage debt that investors can wager on.

The contracts trading for the first clip today are tied
to subprime chemical bonds that are a social class 1 measure higher than those in
existing indexes, according to decision maker Markit Group Ltd.

The index contracts from Banks including and may supply benchmarks for a wider
range of debt that have contributed to more than than $335 billion in
writedowns at fiscal firms. The contracts also may boost
trading in similar chemical bonds by making it easier for investors and
traders to fudge what they own, according to Barclays Capital.

''It do sense for the Street to make a vehicle to hedge
these securities,'' said , who assists supervise $5 billion
as a portfolio director at New York-based Moral Force Recognition Partners.

The new contracts let holders of the debt to wager the
securities will fall in value as increased losings are being
forecast for AAA subprime securities, according to a research
report on May 9 from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Four versions of the ABX.HE.PENAAA contracts, each tied to
different six-month periods, have got been created. These contracts
are tied to subprime chemical bonds that are the second-to-last of those
with initial AAA evaluations to have chief payments. They join
indexes tied to chemical bonds initially granted AAA rankings that are
last in line to be repaid.

The ABX.HE.PENAAA tied to chemical bonds from the first one-half of 2007,
which necessitates the same 0.18 per centum point of annual
protection payments as the existent ABX.HE.AAA, opened at a mid-
price of 65.5, according to a short letter to clients today from Lehman. That translates to an upfront payment of $355,000 per $10 million
of chemical bonds and $18,000 in yearly costs.

Misleading Information

Some holders of subprime-loan chemical bonds such as as , the
second-largest U.S. mortgage-finance company, have got said the
existing AAA ABX contracts supply investors with misleading
information about the value of their assets. Those contracts are
tied to the least part of originally top-rated debt created
by slicing pools of subprime loans into bonds.

The new contracts may be unlikelier to be used by so-called
macro hedgerow finances to wager against the U.S. lodging marketplace because
they're tied to less hazardous debt, New York-based Barclays analysts
and wrote in a May 6 report.

That agency they may not confront the ''selling pressure'' that
has helped thrust down other ABX contracts additional than may be
justified by a rush in U.S. , they said.

Plunging Issue

New series of ABX indexes were created every six calendar months by
securities houses and London-based Markit until the end of last
year, when plunging issue prevented a new round. They indicate
prices for credit-default barters linked to 20 bonds. Credit-
default swaps, contracts to protect against or theorize on
default, wage the purchaser human face value if a company neglects to accede to
its debt agreements.

The up-to-the-minute ABX contracts linked to initially AAA subprime
bonds that are the last to be repaid closed yesterday at 55.99,
up 10.5 percentage from their low, according to Markit. Similar
contracts linked to BBB- chemical bonds closed at 8.09, off 2 percentage from
a low. The indexes tumbled last twelvemonth from at or near 100 as
investors stake rising defaults on place loans would continue. Contracts linked to the last AAA securities from the 2nd half
of 2005, closed at 93.78, up 11.4 percentage from a low.

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