Finance

The consumer credit rise in February was mostly from auto loans, which is likely to support ABS issuance from the sector in the coming months, Standard & Poor's analysts stated in a report released today.

Thirty Democratic senators are urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to evaluate the use of principal reduction as a “targeted solution” for assisting underwater borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

There have not been very many weeks yet this year where the markets have not been roiled about something, and the last week was not one of them either.

Mayer Brown has hired Stephen Rooney for its New York office as a partner and co-leader of its insurance finance group.

Prepayment speeds were projected to increase 10%-15% on average in response to a higher number of collection days at 22 from 20; a pickup in refinancing activity in response to record low mortgage rates, and a rush by servicers to close conventional loans before a 10-basis-point increase in the guaranty fee went into effect on April 1.

Even though third-party due diligence has always been performed on whole loans, the providers of these services have more skin-in-the-game now that rating agencies have very stringent requirements.

Auto ABS are gearing up for another busy week with some deals in the pike. A credit card deal is also coming to market.

Market Vectors Mortgage REIT Income ETF, a rules-based index intended to track the overall performance of publicly traded mortgage REITs, has risen by more than 10% year-to-date, according to a report published by Five Star Equities.

Fitch Ratings today lowered Saxon Mortgage Services' residential servicer ratings.

By at least two measures CMBS delinquencies took a notable upward turn in the last month, and by one measure new defaults also are still on the rise. But some observers believe the deterioration in performance is slowing in some areas and better days may lie ahead.

The potential sale of the Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets might signal that the Federal Reserve is making its move to take liquidity out of the system, securitization experts said today.

Freddie Mac reported a slight easing in fixed-related mortgage rates in the week ending April 5. The 30-year rates averaged 3.98%, down one basis point from last week; 15-year rates slipped to 3.21% from 3.23%, while 5/1 hybrid ARMs were at 2.86% from 2.90%.

Bank of America has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue an auto transaction under its Bank of America Auto Trust 2012-1. The deal is worth almost $1.8 billion.

If the new RMBS deals issued in the past week give an indication of what the non-agency market space will look like, then it is clear that only the best will do.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) hearing panel has ruled that David Lerner Associates (DLA) charged excessive markups on CMO and municipal bond deals during a two-year period.

Non-agency MBS investors should look for bonds with smaller loan sizes in a structure that is levered to severity, said Amherst Securities Group analysts in a report today.

Since the housing crisis began in 2007, mortgage rates have currently dropped to all-time lows and home prices continue to bottom out in most markets. The big question still lingers on the mind of everyone in the industry: Are we on the road to a recovery or are there still gloomy days ahead?

Prices of homes sold by owner/occupants are rising for the first time in years and there has been modest price appreciation in January and February, according to a new CoreLogic report.

Surveys show that what Americans want most is a good job, no surprise there. Over the last few decades, the best jobs have been in the public sector and those requiring a college degree. But the productivity of a growing public sector already suffers from rising costs and diminishing returns that impede economic growth, as in Greece where public sector employment doubled in the last decade or in Spain, where youth unemployment is 50%.Even many college degrees have already passed the point of diminishing returns, as presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently inarticulately expressed. About 30% of high school grads attained a college degree during the past decade and enrollments continue to rise. But according to the Labor Department BLS forecast fewer than a quarter of all new jobs created this decade will require one. The flip side of the surplus of college educated job-seekers is the shortage of skilled workers requiring only a high school diploma, as one third of the students in public high schools don't graduate.