Two major themes that have been dominating the MBS market so far in 2012 are the third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, and refinancing activity associated with the changes to the Home Affordable Refinancing Program, dubbed HARP 2.0.

Bond insurer MBIA reported experiencing losses in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Bond insurer Assured Guaranty reported a net loss per share despite mostly positive results for the fourth quarter of 2011.

The Obama administration's plan to refinance underwater borrowers with private-label mortgages was supposed to be dead on arrival – but it appears Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, wants to hear more.

SLM Corp., more popularly known as Sallie Mae, is going to issue a transaction under its SLM Student Loan Trust 2012-2.

Fannie Mae, in a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said that in late January it cut off Bank of America from selling most types of loans to the GSE because of “delays” by the lender in making good on outstanding buyback requests.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. regulators are unlikely to make the July 21 deadline to finalize the Volcker Rule.

CMBS special servicers have increased their activity over the past two months with roughly $3.7 billion in newly-modified loans, according to an FTN Financial report.

Moody’s Investors Service in a report Wednesday said that the high jobless rate will keep the default rate among private, non-guaranteed student loans at their presently steep levels through 2012. For the collateral backing ABS deals in the agency’s index, the default figure was 5.1% in Q4, about flat from the 5.0% posted in 2010. That is more than double the pre-recession rate.

Mortgage application activity was essentially flat in the week ending Feb. 24 as an increase in purchase activity was offset by a slight decline in refinancing activity.The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported the Purchase Index jumped 8.2% to 175.The Refinance Index declined 2.2% to ~4225 with the share of refinancing applications as a percent of total applications falling to 77.9% from 80.1%. This is the lowest share since the beginning of December 2011.

JPMorgan Chase told a federal court in Wichita, Kan., that it should reject National Credit Union Administration 's (NCUA) claims regarding $1.4 billion of MBS sold to four failed corporate credit unions and dismiss the suit without even allowing for discovery.

Deutsche Bank is marketing its $941 million CMBS conduit deal, which according to market reports, looks set to be followed by more issuers looking to tap the market.