Residential Capital Corp./GMAC earned $217 million in the first quarter, but its residential originations plummeted by 53%, as the near-closing of its correspondent division weighed heavily.

The 30- and 15-year fixed mortgage rates eased back to within one basis point of their record lows to 3.88% and 3.12%, respectively, in the week ending April 26 said Freddie Mac.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said Wednesday that the central bank will maintain its reinvestments of principal payments from agency MBS and debt holdings into new agency MBS.

A deal under a new catastrophe bond program called Mythen Ltd. is in the market. Moody's Investors Service has assigned preliminary ratings to three classes of the Series 2012-1 notes.

Fannie Mae is directing servicers to expedite short sale deals and improve transparency on these reviews.

Price guidance was issued this week for the three-year notes in Leofric 1, which is the debut RMBS from Coventry Building Society.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is supporting a Senate bill to streamline the Home Affordable Refinancing Program (HARP) relieving lenders of repurchase risk when they refinance underwater GSE borrowers.

Morgan Stanley priced a $622 million CLO for Oak Hill Advisors, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The Fed's attempt at economic stimulus has fallen further into the future. Analysts said that the uncertainty is likely to bring an early summer slowdown in the fixed-income markets.

The potential interest rate increase affecting new student loans originated via the government direct lending program will not affect existing FFELP SLABS deals, according to an emailed note from Standard & Poor's this morning.

When most major banks reach the end of the road in their efforts to collect on defaulted credit card accounts, they often sell rights to the soured loans to debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. Those pennies can add up to tens of millions in dollars in revenue for a large card issuer, but American Express (Amex) and USAA have long left that money on the table.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Tuesday reached a settlement with H&R Block subsidiary Option One Mortgage Corp. (OOMC), over charges that the now-defunct subprime lender misled investors that bought some of the firm’s MBS.