Capacity constraints at mortgage lenders that limited the amount of refinancings they could process in November, meant business was held over into December resulting in prepayment speeds being unexpectedly higher last month.

Standard & Poor’s assigned ‘BBB+’ and ‘BB+’ ratings to the class A and B notes to be issued by Aetna’s Vitality Re IV Ltd. (Series 2013-1), a medical benefit linked securitization deal.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's qualified mortgage regulation will provide more clarity to the definition of a qualified residential mortgage as proposed under Dodd-Frank legislation, said analysts at Fitch Ratings.

Ally Financial Inc. is marketing it $940 million subprime auto deal called Capital Auto Receivables Asset Trust 2013-1, bringing the January pipeline for auto ABS to $3.2 billion.

Moody’s Investors Service, Kroll Bond Ratings and Fitch ratings have assigned Aaa'/'AAA'/'AAA' ratings respectively to the class A notes issued by Redwood Trust’s RMBS.

Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and Bank of America began marketing a $600 million single asset commercial mortgage-backed securitization backed by the Queens Center in New York City.

The December FOMC minutes have cause doubts of whether the Fed will tweak asset purchases under QE3 but analysts at Barclays said MBS purchases are likely to stay the same.

Standard & Poor’s said Monday that the pipeline for structured finance issuance has hit $3.4 billion.

Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation kicked off its 2013 auto securitization issuance with a $1 billion deal, Nissan Auto Receivables 2013-A Owner Trust.

The private-label mortgage-backed securities market can make more of a comeback this year due to factors like the agencies’ rising guarantee fees, scarcity of higher-yielding assets for investment and home price appreciation.

Bank of America Corp. reached agreements with Fannie Mae to settle all repurchase and certain other claims surrounding mortgage loans originated by Countrywide Financial Corp from 2000 through 2008.

Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the global risk and reinsurance specialist, announced today that Andrew Beecroft and Paul Rayner have been appointed as managing directors of GC Securities.