The Royal Bank of Scotland announced plans to further streamline its operation and have a greater focus on its fixed-income business, which includes securitization, bond trading, debt capital raising, risk management and rates.

More details emerged this week on Redwood Trust's new RMBS deal. The mortgage REIT told ASR last month that it planned to issue its fourth transaction early 1Q12.

Standard & Poor's expects CLO portfolio credit to be stable this year, said the agency's analysts in an emailed report released this morning.

Freddie Mac reported mortgage rates eased to new record lows for all products in its survey for the week ending Jan. 12.

The small size and poor liquidity of lower-rated CMBS tranches have curbed demand for this paper among large buyers, said Ethan Penner, president of CBRE Capital Partners.

Law firm Paul Hastings added a partner to its leveraged finance practice in Europe.

Golub Capital Partners is close to launching a $250 million middle-market CLO, arranged by Wells Fargo, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service.

Oak Hill Advisors has promoted Alexandra Jung, Adam Kertzner, Jeffrey Kirt and Thomas Wong to partners of the firm.

Stonegate Mortgage Corp. has hired former Irwin Mortgage Corp. executive John F. Macke as executive vice president of capital markets in line with growth plans that include the introduction of non-agency Jumbos this year.

To date, the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks have recognized more than $4.4 billion of losses on their investments in private-label mortgage-backed securities, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Two senior Federal Reserve officials called on policymakers to take steps quickly to help ease the pain of the housing market to assist ongoing efforts to rescue the U.S. economy.

Independent ratings and analytics firm Rapid Ratings said that Jeffrey Gibb has joined the firm as senior vice president of strategic relations and head of legal operations.