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US mortgage rates retreated sharply for a second week, hitting a two-month low and providing a bit of traction for the beleaguered housing market.

The uptick in cash balances might indicate the challenges issuers are facing originating new loans for reinvestment in commercial real estate CLOs.

Nonbanks will probably see the least change, while securitization lenders, depositories and REITs are likely to experience the most, an Urban Land Institute survey suggests.

The case involved a customer who was charged $100,000 in legal fees when he tried to pay off a commercial mortgage early. After the borrower waged a nearly decadelong legal fight, a Florida court ordered the bank to reimburse a portion of the fees.

There's no convincing evidence that central banks' purchases of trillions of dollars of bonds and other financial assets helped any economy.

Over time, the receivables that have FICO scores greater than 720 have continued to rise steadily, while receivables with scores of less than 660 have declined.

The change, effective Dec. 21, is being put into place two years after it was first proposed.

Apollo Global Management Inc. raised its first long-only fund to make investments in multiple credit asset classes, including some of the $43 billion in buyout loans on bank balance sheets.

Scores will be assigned to all loan pools created since 2010, including future securitizations, and are expected to help investors determine the share of mortgages meeting specific characteristics.

Most of the loans in the pool, 56.4%, are not subject to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Ability to Repay Rule, and virtually all are fixed-rate.