Finance

Oak Hill Advisors named its current Chief Operating Officer as its President.

Mortgage applications rose 4.8% in the week ending March 30 with both refinancing and purchase activity higher.

Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay civil money penalties and conduct a review of 60,300 foreclosures conducted by its former servicing subsidiary, Saxon Mortgage Services, as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Reserve Board.

Ocwen Financial Corp., which relies heavily on its overseas workforce, has decided to shutter a pair of North Texas servicing offices, laying off almost 680 mortgage workers in the process, according to a recent filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has priced a $526.8 million CLO to be managed by GoldenTree Asset Management, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

Fitch Ratings made headlines after it published a widely reported unsolicited commentary on Credit Suisse's prime RMBS deal called CSMC Trust 2012-CIM.

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. has filed a second suit against JPMorgan related to MBS originated by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan absorbed during the financial crisis in 2008.

Bank of America this month will try to unload roughly $42 billion of mortgage servicing rights through two different offerings, one involving private label product, according to investors and investment bankers familiar with the bank's auction plans.The first offering, which has been labeled 'Ganesha,' involves the sale of $22 billion of Freddie Mac related MSRs. The package has roughly 18.5% of delinquencies.The second offering – which was in the market and then pulled – involves $20 billion of private label MSRs, said one source who viewed the package. This auction has been dubbed 'Puma.' It's expected the Puma package will be rebid, and possibly reduced.

Hudson Valley Holding Corp. has completed the sale of $474 million in loans after it was required to reduce its concentrations in commercial real estate and classified loans.

As a regulatory deadline rapidly approaches, big banks are becoming increasingly anxious about how they should comply with a ban on proprietary trading.

Only a single borrower is currently delinquent among the roughly 1,800 newly originated prime loans securitized in the handful of Redwood Trust private-label RMBS seen since the start of 2010, according to a Fitch report Monday.

The Treasury Department is fighting back against critics of principal reduction who claim second lien holders will unfairly benefit from a reduction in the loan balances of underwater Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac loans.

Residential servicers completed 20% fewer proprietary loan modifications in February than the month prior, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now servicing alliance.

Ally Bank is set to sell a $500 million flooplan deal under its Ally Master Owner Trust. The transaction is backed by new and used car inventory and light and medium duty truck and van inventory.

Moody's Investors Service today examined the proposed legislation that changes the bankruptcy law to make some types of student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Global structured finance issuance's modest pace in 1Q12 is credit positive for new-issuance in these products that include ABS, RMBS, CMBS and CLOs, according to an emailed note from Standard & Poor's this morning.

Investec has priced the second nonconforming U.K. residential securitization offering for this year.

A new $750 million securitization of credit card receivables from the Penarth receivables trust was announced this week.

Barclays said today it named John Langley and Joe McGrath co-heads of the global finance and risk solutions business within the firm’s investment banking division.

Ally Commercial Finance added a new director that will focus on working with financial sponsors and handle leveraged loans, the firm said.