Several large Wall Street firms that played a key role in financing nonprime lenders this week asked a federal judge to dismiss a nearly $2 billion civil fraud lawsuit filed by the trustee of Thornburg Mortgage, the now defunct Jumbo/super Jumbo lender.

House and Senate appropriators are giving Ginnie Mae more flexibility to increase its staff despite Congressional emphasis on budget cutting and reducing deficits.

The Federal Reserve Thursday morning released its 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database, concluding that a drop in the maximum GSE loan limit to $625,500 (from $729,750) will have only a "small" impact on mortgage originations going forward.

At year end 2010 Bank of America had $2.3 trillion in assets, $230 billion of capital, 57 million customers, ranked among the top firms in nearly every major growth market in the U.S., employed 288,000 people, made $150 billion of community development loans a year, donated $200 million to charity annually, and was one of the largest home lenders in the nation.

CastleOak Securities has hired two professionals for its fixed-income sales department, the firm said today.

Citigroup has priced a $352 million CLO for Apidos Capital Management, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Radian Group, the nation's third largest mortgage insurer, said in a new regulatory filing Wednesday that it has fired its chief operating officer Robert Griffith and reduced its workforce by 7%.

Discover Financial Services more than doubled its third-quarter net income to $649 million, as its customers increased their spending and its credit card loan portfolio grew for the first time in over two years.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins this week filed suit against MERSCORP, seeking a judicial determination of whether the industry's use of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) is legal in the Lone Star State.

The State Board of Regents of the State of Utah is in the market with a $397 million SLABS deal series 2011-1.

Today's Freddie Mac mortgage rate survey is somewhat less relevant than it would have been otherwise after yesterday's late afternoon Federal Open Market Committee statement.

Dislocation in the primary market continues to highlight value in some of the more non-traditional asset classes.