Finance

Freddie Mac reported 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 3.99% with an average 0.7 point in the week ending March 29 compared to 4.08% with an average 0.8 point last week.Despite the improvement, refinancing activity outside of Home Affordable Refinance Program-related is not likely to be too motivated as the no point rate at 4.18% is still outside the incentive window for many of the borrowers underlying 3.5% and 4.0% coupons.

For now at least, the Obama administration is declining to endorse legislation by Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin that would allow borrowers to discharge their private student loan debt in bankruptcy.During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was non-committal about the legislation, while at the same time suggesting that he is broadly sympathetic with Durbin's concerns about the private student loan market.

Federal regulators ought to start over on the Volcker Rule, and get back to basics.

Last month a lawsuit brought by holders of TruPS resulted in a ruling that stopped the sale of BankAtlantic to BB&T Corp. under the original terms. Following the ruling, BB&T amended the terms and proposed to assume the TruPS obligations.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will decide sometime in April whether the higher incentive fees the Treasury Department is paying are enough to justify allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do principal reductions for the first time.

The Carlyle Group closed a $510 million CLO, its second in a year, the private equity firm said in statement.

Standard & Poor's most recent European CLO Performance Index Report showed several changes in performance metrics in December 2011.

The House Financial Services Committee Tuesday approved a bill to enhance the FHA's authority to police bad lenders after rejecting an amendment that would have reduced the agency's loan guarantees.

Higher rates pressed on refinancing activity in the week ending March 23. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the Refinance Index declined 4.6% to ~3438, its lowest level since early December.

In a departure from recent tender offers in Europe, Spain’s Bankia had a higher-than-expected take-up, according to a release by Barclays Capital analyst Dipesh Mehta.

CRE Finance Council Europe (CREFC Europe) has appointed Peter Denton as chair-elect of the group.

Freddie Mac purchased $37.6 billion of residential loans from its seller/servicers in February, a 10% increase from the prior month, and a sign perhaps that Bank of America's recent decision to quit Fannie Mae is helping Freddie.

Dallas-based Metropolitan Capital Advisors (MCA), has successfully secured a permanent financing package with a CMBS lender for the refinance of the Sunwest portfolio—a collection of 25 single and multi-tenant properties scattered across 8 states.

Prudential Financial Insurance (PFI) is marketing a new hybrid deal that according to market reports is backed by subprime residential mortgage backed securities and guaranteed by the insurer.

FirstEnergy of Ohio is said to be prepping a $500 million securitization of deferred energy costs.

Standard & Poor's said Tuesday that home prices fell in January for the fifth consecutive month, reaching a new low for the housing bust.

Investors who purchase distressed loans at a discount are among those in a good position to sense how problem assets might best be resolved, and one of these players believes more aggressive refis and mods and fewer government constraints on lending could help.

State Street Global Markets' Investor Confidence Index(ICI) for March 2012 showed that the outlook of both American and European institutional investors improved.

The CRE Finance Council Europe and Ernst & Young released a joint European commercial real estate lending tax guide.

Nomura Securities analysts said that since the start of 2012, they have seen an issuance surge in equipment ABS sector with roughly $3.7 billion issuance across five deals versus $1.65 billion issued in the first three months of last year.