Wells Fargo this week launched a new unit to provide financial services to publicly traded REITs involved in commercial properties.

Foreclosure filings increased 7% in October from the prior month with servicers and banks recording default notices, scheduled auctions, and lender repossessions on 230,678 U.S. properties, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. completed its $350 million credit card deal called World Financial Network Credit Card Master Note Trust.

Further details emerged on the upcoming Barclays Capital U.K. RMBS deal from its Gracechurch master trust structure.

Lloyds Banking Group reported its pre-tax profits fell to £644 million in the three months to September — a 21% drop from the previous quarter.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, will today introduce the Mortgage Market Privatization and Standardization Act (S.1834). This bill aims to responsibly unwind GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

UBS is reportedly closing its U.S. ABS business, according to a Dow Jones report that quoted an advance copy of a Thursday edition of Swiss weekly Handelszeitung.

A bipartisan group of senators, Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Charles Schumer (D-NY), today sponsored new legislation that would set up a covered bond framework in the U.S.

County and state officials are turning up the heat on MERS, as recent lawsuits filed in Florida, Delaware and Texas challenge the validity and accuracy of the mortgage industry-controlled loan registry.

The Federal Housing Administration confirmed that it has hired a new multifamily director and a new chief risk officer.

Ginnie Mae reported a $1.2 billion profit from its secondary market operations in fiscal year 2011 — up 84% from FY 2010 — due to lower loss provisioning.

MarketAxess, a U.S. and European fixed-income electronic trading platform, has made an initial foray into U.S. nonagency residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities markets that appears to be drawing some interest.