Globe and Mail – The market meltdown has claimed another hedge fund, with Silvercreek Management into workout mode on a convertible bond fund that featured a who’s who of Canadian finance backers.

Silvercreek oversees an estimated $300-million, and ran into trouble in November when the wheels came off the convertible bond market. This debt, which can be flipped into equity, constituted the single worst performing asset class for hedge funds in 2008. That makes converts, as they are known on the Street, the baddest of a very bad lot.

Convertible funds were down an average of 26 per cent last year, according to the U.S. bible for the industry, Absolute Return. The average performance was a loss of just 6.9 per cent.

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Tags: absolute-return, asset class, backers, baddest, bible, bond fund, bond-market, canadian finance, convertible bond, convertible funds, converts, globe and mail, market-meltdown, wheels, workout

FierceFinance – The government is committed to keeping the wheels of consumer credit greased. To that end, it has launched a $200 billion effort to support the market for consumer receivables. 

The Fed announced it will "offer low-cost three-year funding to any U.S. company investing in securitized consumer loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF)," reports the Financial Times. 

"This includes hedge funds, which have never been able to borrow from the U.S. central bank before." The TALF will likely be expanded to cover mortgage-backed securities next year. We’ll have to see if this really adds liquidity to the secondary markets.

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Tags: asset backed securities, consumer credit, consumer loans, consumer receivables, financial times, liquidity, loan facility, mortgage backed securities, s-central, secondary markets, securities loan, u s company, wheels