The May prepayment report was all about HARP, as was expected; however, speeds on seasoned 5.0%s on through 6.5% were faster than anticipated. Meanwhile, lower coupons were mostly slower than projected.

Moody’s Investors Service said that Spain, Greece and the U.K. are the European countries most vulnerable to a precipitous drop in housing prices from an economic shock, according to a report released Thursday on the agency’s methodology for stressing house prices linked to its RMBS transactions.

The differential in pricing between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS has widened over the past year despite a high level of refinancings and issuance. But concerns are growing that investors’ preference for Fannie mortgage-backed securities could increase even more as refinancings decline later this year, according to officials at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Both GSEs are wards of the federal government.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has recommeded high-level international standards for the regulation of market participants that are in the business of dealing, making a market or intermediating transactions in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.

The nation’s mega servicers are increasing their use of principal reductions in modifying loans as they fulfill obligations under the $25 billion robo-signing settlement with the state attorneys general and federal agencies, according to new figures released by the Treasury Department.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged investment management company Oppenheimer Funds' sales and distribution arm for misleading investors about the extent of the exposure of two of its mutual funds to CMBS in the midst of the credit crisis in late 2008.

Standard & Poor's said in a report today that U.S. credit card securitization volume is up by 156% from volumes issued in 2011.

Proposed legislation covering Canadian covered bonds will increase the structural requirements for achieving triple-A, according to Nicolas Malaterre, senior director of covered bonds at Standard & Poor’s.

Despite intense volatility buffeting the Eurozone in recent months, Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees long-term strengths in the region’s structured finance space.

Barclays Capital issued a $500 million transaction from its medium-term note program, Gracechurch Card Program Funding PLC.

Milestone Merchant Partners is circulating an offering book on $30.8 billion of mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to now-defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, Ocala, Fla.

An executive at a real estate investment trust that invests in agency and non-agency MBS said proposed credit risk-sharing opportunities with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are among the type of investments his firm would like to buy into.