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.

Swiss Re has obtained another $130 million in protection via the Successor X Ltd. catastrophe bond program. This program covers North Atlantic hurricane and European windstorm.

American Express is in the market with a $864 million credit card securitization from the bank's American Express Credit Account Master Trust Series 2011-2.

Bill Twombly has joined the Risk Management Group (RMG) team as the managing director of RMG’s due diligence practice. He replaces Dante Jackson who has moved on to pursue other opportunities.

European banks may opt to sell assets, rather than raise additional capital to meet higher capital ratio requirements.

Ally Financial is actively considering putting its ailing Residential Capital Corp. (ResCap) mortgage lending unit into bankruptcy, according to a report from Dow Jones.

Not surprisingly, mortgage application activity rose 10.3% in the week ending Nov. 4.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker blamed financial lobbyists for overcomplicating the Volcker rule at a university talk in Singapore, according to a Reuters report.