Specialty finance firm Imperial Holdings has announced that wholly-owned unit Washington Square Financial (WSF) entered into a forward purchase and sale agreement to directly sell up to $40 million of life contingent structured settlement receivables to Compass Settlements.

Commercial mortgages had a mixed year in the securitized secondary markets during 2011. The outlook for 2012 is that the sector still faces some hurdles but may hold some opportunities.

Another big year for multifamily construction could push housing starts up 13% in 2012 after posting a 4% increase last year, according to a new forecast from Wells Fargo Securities.

The fight over a capital surcharge for the largest banks took center stage in 2011, at least in the international Basel III process, as the chief executives of some major banks publicly clashed with regulators over the issue.

The private-label MBS market might get a boost from two companies that are planning to issue in 2012 — Redwood Trust, the only issuer of non-agency MBS securitizations post-crisis, and Two Harbors Investment Corp., which is partnering with Barclays Capital.

The top 10 sellers of mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay 20 basis points in guarantee fees compared to 30 basis points for firms outside the top 100, according to a new report from Keefe Bruyette & Woods (KBW).

The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) on Dec 29 released the results for its 2012 Loan Market Survey (for a full copy of the slide presentation, please click the link below).

After the passage of the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (H.R. 3765), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) stated there will be a 10 basis point GSE g-fee increase effective April 1, 2012.

The leveraged loan market experienced a lackluster year in 2011, with returns down and bids float in both the U.S. and Europe, according to Markit.

DBRS released a report today regarding the Attorneys General settlement with servicers. The rating agency said it will continue to monitor the servicing industry regarding the final settlement terms and the effect the settlement will have on the secondary market.

MGIC Investment Corp. at yearend contributed $200 million of cash to its mortgage insurance subsidiary as two important capital waiver deadlines expired.

Long an adjunct of the insurance and reinsurance sectors, the catastrophe bond market appears primed to become a more mainstream allocation alternative in 2012. This shift is prompted by issuers' growing capital needs and the incentive that the risk from natural disasters it mitigates is not correlated with the manmade financial variety. While 2011 new-issuance volume is anticipated to end up just short of last year's numbers, and outstanding cat bond issuance remains about the same, indications point to a strong 2012.