The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) sent a letter on Friday to the Securities Exchange Commission recommending that it take action to prohibit by regulation or recommend to Congress to prohibit by law the securitization of life settlements.

Since being seized by the government during the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac haven't been businesses so much as government-owned mortgage utilities. That status was supposed to be temporary, but three years later, lawmakers have shown little appetite for changing it.

Days after it was leaked to the public, banking regulators released the official version Tuesday of a proposal implementing severe restrictions on banks' trading activities.

LoanSifter, Inc has launched the LoanSifter Available Mortgage Rate IndexT (AMRI), the mortgage industry's first complete, real-time mortgage rate index and the only index that provides a realistic idea of what borrowers typically pay for a loan.

Jay Jacobs has joined ServiceLink as senior vice president of default abstract solutions.

Auto ABS continues to lead consumer ABS volumes and the latest deal to emerge in the pipeline comes via Honda's $1.0 billion Honda Auto Receivables 2011-3 Owner Trust.

The Royal Bank of Scotland priced its £3.6 billion ($5.5 billion) U.K. RMBS transaction called Arran Residential Mortgages Funding 2011-2 plc, which issued tranches denominated in dollars, euro and British pounds.

A recent survey conducted by Information Management Network (IMN), found that securitization market participants believe that the development of a U.S. covered bonds market is long overdue and the introduction of more private capital will be a positive move for the space.

With regulators facing the potential of significant revisions to their risk-retention rule, there is growing speculation among industry and consumer groups that the agencies will go back to the drawing board and issue a new proposal.

Credit rating agency DBRS this week approved American Mortgage Consultants, New York, as a third-party due diligence provider for residential MBS.

Helios AMC, a commercial real estate special servicer which is sponsored by Ranieri Partners, has acquired real estate advisory firm The Situs Companies. The combined entity will retain the Situs name.

The Obama Administration's efforts to expand a GSE refinancing program and reach a large number of underwater borrowers will depend on how far the Federal Housing Finance Agency will go in providing lenders relief from loan buy-backs, according to industry officials and analysts watching the effort.