Is it time to bet on multifamily? More housing analysts say, yes. What was once a market dedicated to homeownership and long-term investments is shifting somewhat.

Jim Regan joins Austin, Texas-based Amherst Securities Group as head of asset-backed securities (ABS) trading. Regan joins the residential mortgage-backed securities broker-dealer after most recently serving as the head of ABS trading at Cohen and Company. Prior to that, he was head of structured trading at ABN AMRO and as a senior trader on the ABS desk at Credit Suisse and as a senior ABS trader at Prudential Securities.

Investor interest in the asset-backed securitization market reached a record high yesterday in the Federal Reserve's records. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York late Tuesday said it received $11.45bn in additional loan requests by investors interested in participating in the Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility (TALF). These requests, if granted, put billions of dollars into the hands of institutional investors to buy up new ABS within certain categories, in turn encouraging more lending and securitization, which regulators say will keep credit flowing.

Players in the asset-backed securities (ABS) space continue to leave the Paris-based investment bank. Nonetheless, sources at Société Générale report active trading in ABS and other markets as well, especially in commodities and liquidity management, but stopped short of providing numbers. The bank is perhaps better known in the US as falling victim to the alleged rogue trading of Jérôme Kerviel who, by some accounts, cost the bank nearly €5bn ($7.29bn) in losses.