Residential real estate activity showed “some” improvement in March, but there were few signs of spring for the single-family housing market in the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report released Wednesday afternoon.

FICO's new chief executive is starting in defense mode, as the credit-score giant looks to regain the reputation and business it has lost in the wake of the financial crisis.

Foreclosure filings fell in the first quarter to their lowest level since the end of 2007, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac, but the mortgage and housing industries shouldn't pop the champagne quite yet.Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were reported on 572,928 properties during the quarter, a 2% sequential decline, and a 16% drop from a year ago.

The JPMorgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust 2012-C6 deal expected to price next week is in the market.

Santander U.K. has priced its $1.2 billion RMBS issued under its Holmes Master Trust.

The government controlled Ally Financial Thursday morning filed an amended S-1 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it hopes to sell $100 million worth of common stock to the general public.

Freddie Mac reported 30-year fixed mortgage rates plunged 10 basis points to 3.88% as of the week ending April 12 in response to the recent flight to quality.

As per its usual, the auto ABS market this week has been busy with deals. Today alone Bank of America, Toyota Motor Credit Corp. and GM Financial priced their respective auto ABS transactions.

Law firm Mayer Brown has brought on Richard Spitzer as a partner in its insurance finance group.

Corporate bonds offer a valuable relative value benchmark comparison for CMBS 3.0 bonds, according to a report released by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analysts today.

The Prestwick Mortgage Group is offering $128 million of Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights and hopes to complete the auction by the end of next week.

Charles Schwab is looking for a managing director who will focus on conducting structured finance analysis on ABCP and non-mortgage ABS, according to job database Fins Finance.