Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Sept. 11-17

Banks reported decent loan growth in the spring and early summer as businesses rushed to draw down credit lines and tap the Paycheck Protection Program. But demand has been muted since, and bankers can only guess when it will pick back up.

Mortgage rates remained relatively flat, rising a single basis point off of last week's record low, according to Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been slammed for planning an additional refinancing charge to cover COVID-related losses, but the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency defended the policy in House testimony.

Low rates, along with increased new and existing home sales activity drives the latest forecast.

S&P stated lessors are confronted with the increasingly troubled financial health of airlines, which has led to a sharp drop in aircraft values and lease rates as well as an array of requests for deferrals or delayed payments on rental contracts.

Mortgage applications decreased 2.5% from one week earlier as refinance activity appears to decelerating, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The captive-finance lender for U.S. Mercedes-Benz deals closed on its second transaction of the year, and the first auto-lease ABS to price since July.

A new report on bank-held commercial real estate and C&I loans indicates troubled borrowers may be skipping payments on loans they won't be able to refinance or extend over the next year, leading to a potential wave of defaults over the next four to six quarters.

Electronic notes did come in handy this year given the mortgage industry's need to operate remotely, but they also increase the government-sponsored enterprises' responsibility for monitoring the risk of multiple counterparties.

COVID-19 and the inclusion of secondary tier loans for borrowers with lower FICOs is prompting Kroll to project credit losses nearly a third higher than the authority's 2018 solar-loan bond series.

The government-sponsored enterprise’s seller/servicer guide is now integrated into the online portal. Freddie also improved the readability of loan-level reporting it provides, and has further changes in the works.