Finance

Judicial Watch has sued the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), claiming that the agency wrongfully denied a request for documents related to a lawsuit over alleged misrepresentations of MBS.

Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C. has hired Howard Mulligan as of counsel in the corporate department.

After peaking at 4538 for 2012, refinancing activity has declined for three straight weeks as mortgage rates remained above record lows.

Conventional 30-year prepayments increased around 12% versus an expected 6%-7%.

Nationstar Mortgage and an affiliate company Newcastle Investment Corp. have agreed to acquire roughly $63 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

The number of foreclosure sales spiked in January as banks and government agencies started to clear the backlog of properties that have been in the foreclosure process for several years, according to data released Tuesday.

As cities and towns across the country struggle to pay bills and prevent troubled properties from giving rise to blighted neighborhoods, they're turning by the hundreds to a new tactic.

President Barack Obama today announced the changes to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) streamlined refinancings.

The Carlyle Group is planning a $494.2 million CLO. The deal, dubbed Carlyle Global Market Strategies CLO 2012-1, would be the private equity firm’s thirty-third, and its first new issue for 2012. It is an arbitrage cash flow CLO with a four-year reinvestment period, scheduled to end in April 2016, according to a presale report by Fitch Ratings.

The CMBS market appears to be looking up performance-wise, but there may be less of it in terms of outstandings, and despite stronger originations, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

Investors will get a shot at picking up U.K. subprime paper via the new securitization of assets that were originated by GMAC Residential Funding Co.

As reported yesterday by ASR in this article, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are teaming up to issue a CMBS conduit. For the Securities and Exchange Commission filing related to the deal, please click here.

Standard & Poor's analysts are projecting that 2012 Canadian covered bond issuance will reach C$20 billion. However, this number is below 2011's record C$25.7 billion.

Volvo Financial Services is marketing a $642 million equipment lease securitization.

The second conduit deal for this year, the $1 billion COMM 2012-LC4 from Deutsche Bank, priced tight to initial guidance amid signs of strong demand.

The Treasury Department has agreed to pay $171 million that it withheld from Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase after the two servicers fixed problems in how they handled government-backed residential loan modifications.

Bank of America issued just $7.9 billion of Ginnie Mae securities in the fourth quarter, a 71% plunge from the same period in 2010, according to new figures compiled by ASR's sister publication, National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

If the U.S. economy needs more stimulus, resuming the Federal Reserve's MBS purchase program “would probably be the best course of action,” according to San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams.

Halifax has announced it will raise its standard variable rate (SVR) from 3.50% to 3.99% beginning May 1.

First Marblehead Corp. sold its data services company and legacy trust administration business to Route 66 Ventures for $13.7 million.