The Senate last week rejected dueling Democrat and Republican proposals to extend the low interest on federally guaranteed student loans as the July 1 deadline to double the rate to 6.8% draws closer.

Proskauer Rose has hired a team of restructuring and insolvency attorneys from bankrupt law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, the New York and London-based firm said.Partners Mark Fennessy and Hazel Miller have joined Proskauer from the troubled Dewey, which filed for bankruptcy protection in New York on Monday, May 28. Fennessy headed Dewey’s European restructuring practice

Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that its national home price index fell 2% in the first quarter on a sequential basis.

Here’s an interesting statistic presented to me by one investor eyeing the mortgage market: over the past 18 months, REITs have raised $26 billion in new equity. Almost all of it has been targeted toward MBS investments. Very little has been plowed into mortgage servicing rights.

Following a slow beginning of the month, Standard & Poor's analysts, in a report released on May 25, stated that covered bond issuance has increased over the past few days.

In a report released Friday, Fitch Ratings stated that special servicers rarely exercise the fair value market purchase option or FVMO.

The technical committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has published a consultation report called Credit Rating Agencies: Internal Controls Designed to Ensure the Integrity of the Credit Rating Process and Procedures to Manage Conflicts of Interest.

The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) stopped purchasing private-label MBS in 2008, but losses on those bad investments have been a major drag on earnings ever since. But that may be changing.

In a recent presentation to investors Fortress Investment Group estimated that $4 trillion in mortgage servicing rights may change hands over the next few years, but MSR investors and others say that estimate is much too high.

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday released the last details of how two mortgage servicers — Citigroup and HSBC Finance Corp. — plan to fix problems in their home loan servicing and foreclosure processes.

Key senators signaled guarded optimism Thursday about the chances of finding a bipartisan compromise on mortgage refinancing legislation, though the bill still faces an uphill fight in the House.