The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its report on the state of private student lending today. The report showed that loans in the sector are increasingly being underwritten to stricter criteria that benefits both lenders and borrowers.

The U.K. RMBS pipeline added a £680 million ($1.06 billion) transaction that is backed by a pool of prime U.K. residential mortgage loans originated by the former Britannia Building Society and the Co-operative Bank plc.

Market participants believe the availability of new mortgage production is an obstacle to QE3 despite Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's supportive comments in his semi-annual congressional testimony on Tuesday, BNP Paribas MBS analysts said in a report released yesterday.

The standardization of future CLOs' defined terms and structural features can hasten the sector's primary issuance process, Fitch Ratings said in a note released this morning.

A proposal by San Bernardino County to use eminent domain to seize, and then restructure, underwater private-label mortgages would result in more than just losses to private investors. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks are also in major investors in private-label securities and they too would suffer if the county took over what is estimated to be 150,000 underwater mortgages.

Citigroup analysts in their Consumer ABS Weekly published today examined the near-term impact of the interchange settlement on credit card master trusts and determined it was marginal.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has reached a consensus on the issue of cities using their power of eminent domain to refinance underwater mortgages (using reducing principal reductions) that reside in private-label MBS, saying it will foul up the securitization process.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) first-ever enforcement action Wednesday — hitting Capital One over card marketing practices — carried a pair of messages for the industry as a whole.

Spain’s Royal Decree Law 20/2012, which became effective on July 14, allows covered bonds to be backed by loans that finance export as well the as international expansion of Spanish firms. The new law offers further proof that the country’s banks have much fewer options in terms of traditional assets to support these bonds.

Thanks to continued, ultra-low interest rates, Freddie Mac is feeling quite bullish about loan production for the remainder of 2012, hiking its origination forecast by $200 billion to $1.65 trillion for the year.

The Prestwick Mortgage Group is marketing a $58 million package of mortgage servicing rights backed by mostly multifamily commercial mortgages held by private investors.

Freddie Mac reported new record lows along 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates as well as 5/1 hybrid ARMs for the week ending July 19. Both 30- and 15-year rates declined three basis points to 3.53% (no -point rate at 3.71%) and 2.83%, respectively. Meanwhile, 5/1 hybrids fell five basis points to a 2.69% average which matches this week's one-year ARM rate.