In Brief: Home Equity Bonds Totaling $1B Offered

Affiliates of Provident Financial Group Inc., Bank One Corp., and General Motors Acceptance Corp. are bringing to more than $1 billion of home equity bonds, investors and traders said Tuesday.

Provident Bank, based in Cincinnati, said it planned to sell $515 million in floating rate debt backed by home equity loans. Lehman Brothers Inc. is leading the sale, which has a financial guarantee from MBIA Inc. The floating-rate securities are backed by a mix of floating and fixed-rate collateral.

The sale has three classes. The largest, at $200 million, is expected to be placed with a single investor, not identified. The other two are $123 million (one-year) and $192 million (4.5 years).

BankOne's finance subsidiary was planning to sell $275 million of home equity bonds in a fixed-rate offering through Merrill Lynch & Co., according to sources familiar with the sale. The sale has four classes and is AAA-rated, thanks to a financial guarantee from Ambac Assurance Corp.

Residential Funding Corp., an affiliate of General Motors Corp., was expected to sell about $231 million of securities backed by home equity loans, with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. leading the fixed-rate sale.

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