Finance

European banks will likely reprise their former role as major RMBS buyers if the asset class becomes eligible for Basel liquidity requirements, as proposed in the CRD IV implementation draft put out by European Commission, according to analysts at RBS in their weekly ABS report.

PHH Corp. named Smriti Laxman Popenoe, executive vice president and chief risk officer at the firm, as interim president for PHH Mortgage.

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) said Monday morning it will receive $5.25 million from HSBC for settling claims related to MBS it sold to five failed corporate credit unions.

For deals serviced by Wells Fargo, Ally Financial, and Citibank on private-label loans, the mortgage settlement's impact will likely be fairly negligible.

More than a month after federal and state officials announced a massive $25 billion settlement with the five mortgage servicers, the Justice Department on Monday finally released the actual legal document.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) said that the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved its application to operate a new central counterparty (CCP) to limit MBS-related risk and costs.

The rate of improvement for U.S. subprime RMBS has slowed down, according to Fitch Ratings.

The European structured finance market has seen a rise in the ratio of deals sold to investors over those that are retained, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Auto companies are lining up their multiple asset-backed offerings this week. Equipment ABS issuers are also joining the mix of automobile securitizations.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Housing and Urban Development, along with 49 state attorneys general, filed their joint $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers in court Monday.

Amherst Securities Group (ASG) examined the historical performance of the non-agency market throughout the housing crisis in a report published late Friday.

Agency MBS certainly dominate the market today in many respects, but as one aspect of the recent strategic plan for the GSEs highlights, the private-label market can be considered ahead of them in terms of loan-level disclosure and it is time for that to change.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

Almost a year after credit card loans hit bottom, banks have given little slack in credit lines.

According to Leveraged Commentary & Data (LCD), a unit of Standard & Poor's, leveraged loan issuance is down by half versus last year, which S&P analysts said is potential constraint for CLO issuance.

Philips Electronics N.V., the Netherlands-based electronics giant, priced a $432 million credit tenant lease Friday, according to a source familiar with the transaction.

Just about every week so far in 2012 has had a headline or tape bomb to deal with and this week was no exception. In fact, there were two that directly hit the MBS sector, which are the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance premium announcement and February prepayments.

In one of the most ambitious suits of its kind so far, Space Coast Credit Union has filed suit against several investment banks and rating agencies for the sale of $150 million of CDOs to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, the huge Florida credit union that failed in 2009 then was acquired by Space Coast.

Auto sales are gaining strength, which can further boost auto securitization issuance, analysts stated.

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted this morning, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.