Finance

An appellate court decision earlier this month would provide a new avenue for borrowers to file suit against mortgage servicers that deny permanent modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Moody's Investors Service has pointed out in a report released late yesterday that the overall level of credit risk in the structured market is inching up. The rating agency predicted that the easing of credit that happened in 2011 will continue into 2012 and beyond.

Mortgage bankers funded roughly $41 billion of Jumbo loans in 4Q11, a 28% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by ASR sister publication National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

The week revolved primarily around Tuesday's one-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting. For one that was expected to be relatively uneventful, it turned out to have anything but in terms of the markets' response.

The $25 billion national mortgage settlement essentially allows the five largest servicers to police themselves — which has made many consumer advocates surprisingly happy.

A federal judge indicated yesterday he plans to reject Goldman Sachs' motion to dismiss National Credit Union Administration 's (NCUA) suit and continue the case challenging the Wall Street bank over $1.1 billion of faulty RMBS it sold to U.S. Central Federal Credit Union and WesCorp Federal Credit Union, the two biggest credit union failures ever.

Bond-insurer Assured Guaranty Corp. has sued JPMorgan over MBS that Assured says JPMorgan misrepresented.

Reuters news service is reporting that bond insurer MBIA has reached settlements in its lawsuit against the London branch of UBS.

Management at Ally Financial Corp. is considering throwing part of its mortgage division into bankruptcy and then executing a sale of most of its “good” assets, investment banking sources said late Thursday.

Citigroup has sold a $360.8 million CLO for Babson Capital Management, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is willing to back a GSE-related refinancing bill introduced by Sen. Al Franken, D., Minn., but wants assurances that the industry will no longer be hit with buyback requests on loans that are several years old.

The great land rush to riches in the Jumbo securitization market appears to have hit a brick wall.

Mortgage rates recorded modest increases in the week ending March 15, according to Freddie Mac's survey.More specifically, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 3.92% compared to 3.88% last week. Meanwhile, 15-year fixed moved up to 3.16% from 3.13%; 5/1 hybrid ARMs rose two basis points to 2.83%, while one-year ARMs "jumped" six basis points to 2.79%.Mortgage rates are likely to have moved up higher as the survey is done earlier in the week.

Portugal's Banco Santandar Totta has hopped on the buyback bandwagon, announcing a tender for its RMBS.

Moody's Investors Service has said that Australian ABS performance experienced slightly higher delinquencies across most programs.

The apartment market is recovering nicely and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are enjoying the ride.

Recent increases in auto sales are a harbinger for higher auto ABS issuance in the upcoming months, according to an emailed note this morning from Standard & Poor's.

Yesterday the Federal Reserve stated again that it would maintain its existing policies of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBSs.

The recent transfers to special servicing on CMBS large loans have demonstrated the default risk from near-term tenant rollovers, according to Barclays Capital in a report released Wednesday.