Mortgage applications surged 15.5% in the week ending July 15, said the Mortgage Bankers Association, with the Refi Index jumping 23.1% to ~2733 - its highest level since mid-June. As a percent of total applications, refinancing share increased to its highest level since January to 70.1% from 65.6% previously. The Purchase Index was unchanged at 184.

If the financial industry were made up of nursery rhymes, Wells Fargo & Co. would be Little Jack Horner and Bank of America Corp. would be regarded as Pinocchio.

Elizabeth Warren has spent much of the past year arguing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is not as scary as banks think. But as she steps aside, will that really be the case?

Legislation is moving forward that would more definitively exempt rating agencies from a liability that shut down securitized markets at one point last year, according to an industry trade group.

The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) submitted its comments to regulators on the joint regulatory proposal on credit risk retention for ABS.

First and second mortgage default rates fell in June to 2.02% and 1.40% respectively, according to the Standard & Poor's /Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices. Last month the two default rates were recorded at 2.09% and 1.42%, respectively.

While in the United States efforts to create more new-issue-rated RMBS are just starting to gain a little more momentum and the latest economic indicators at press time have not exactly been rosy, RMBS Down Under have been doing relatively well.

Greenwich Associates released its annual list of top leaders in the U.S. institutional fixed-income trading market today, revealing a deadlock for first between Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan with each firm holding an 11.5% overall market share.

Single-family housing starts unexpectedly jumped 9.4% in June from the previous month with multifamily activity spiking 32%.

Lloyds Bank TSB is marketing bonds backed by ₤1.2 billion ($1.92 billion) of loans to small and medium sized businesses.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) late Monday filed its third lawsuit alleging violations of federal and state laws related to misrepresentations in the sale of MBS to now defunct corporate credit unions.

Freddie Mac released its July 2011 economic outlook yesterday where it projected that the U.S. housing market will perform similarly to the overall U.S. economy for the rest of 2011, with home sales above 2010’s pace by 3% to 5%.