Average weekly fixed rates for mortgages inched up a bit but still are ending the year near their all-time historic lows, according to Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement a congressionally mandated increase in their loan guarantee fees on April 1.

Hannover Re Group executive board member Wolf Becke will retiring after 20 years of serving on the board.

Morrison & Foerster has been appointed as legal counsel for the European DataWarehouse (ED), the Eurosystem-endorsed data repository that will facilitate the storage and dissemination of ABS loan-level data.

There is little risk of a negative impact on CMBS from the closure of 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores under the U.S. Sears Holdings Corp., according to a Fitch Ratings report.

BTG Pactual, through its retail banking unit Banco PanAmericano, signed a non-binding agreement to acquire Brazilian Finance & Real Estate (BFRE), which specializes in property and real estate securitization.

Welspun Energy , India's biggest solar photovoltaic developer, which is backed by Apollo Global Management, is looking to securitize revenue from its 15-megawatt unit in Gujurat after three months of operation.

KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) recently hired Christopher Moroz and Michael Giasi to its fixed-income team as part of its efforts to further expand the firm's MBS capabilities, as reported on Dec 19 by StructuredFinanceNews.com (see link).

Zillow is projecting that home values across the country are expected to have gone down approximately $700 billion in 2011, which would be 35% less than the $1.1 trillion that was lost in 2010.

The $66.4 billion scheduled to mature in credit card securitization could add an extra $14 billion to credit card ABS volumes in 2012, Wells Fargo analysts said in a report released today.

Standard & Poor's late Tuesday said it is reviewing its rating criteria for U.S. RMBS backed primarily by second liens.

The serious delinquency rate on Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans has risen a full percentage point over four months to 9.3% in November.