Finance

Cashel USA Property Partners plans to purchase up to $500 million in distressed single-family residences in the U.S. to convert into rentals that will be serviced by PropertyAccess, a provider of national property management services for professional investors.

Not surprisingly, a new low in mortgage rates buoyed refinancing activity in the week ending Feb. 3.

Consumer debt rose 3.7% year-over-year to $2,498 billion in December, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in a report released last yesterday.

Moments before he was scheduled to make a statement on the mortgage servicing settlement Tuesday night, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman postponed the conference call indefinitely.

Mortgage servicers continue to modify 25,000 loans a month under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), but that pace could pick up later this summer as new changes to the effort kick in.

Average three-month severities on CMBS conduit loans are at 47%, having steadily climbed since the middle of last year, according to Barclays Capital analysts, who predicted they would stay lofty in coming months.

Freddie Mac has announced its sixth offering of Structured Passthrough Certificates or K Certificates backed exclusively by multifamily mortgages with a seven-year term.

Analytics provider CoreLogic appointed Kevin Wall as senior vice president of its default services business.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 38 other Republicans are pledging to file a court brief supporting any legal challenge to the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Maverick Funding Corp., Parsippany, N.J. has hired away Joshua Shein, the CEO of reverse lender Great Oak Lending (GOL), who brings with him to his new employer roughly 30 employees including 11 loan officers.

Conventional speeds declined around 6%-8% in January versus an expected 3% average. The factors impacting CPRs included a lower number of collection days at 20 from 21, which offset the slight 4.0% increase on average in refinancing activity in December as mortgage rates slipped to an average of 3.95% from 3.99%.

The International Finance Corp. expects to fund a landmark $65 million deal with Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon (CBC) in early March, said an official at the multilateral.

Loan data verification company IMARC has hired Lisa Binkley as senior director of product design and business development.

Federal Reserve officials will meet Wednesday to discuss Capital One Financial Corp.'s $9 billion deal for ING Direct USA, the central bank said.

After a yearlong effort to reach a multistate settlement with the top five mortgage servicers, state attorneys general and the firms involved finally appear to be close to a deal.

Moody's Investors Service in mid-January updated its rating methodology report for FFELP student loan ABS.

Optimism among market participants regarding CLO issuance in 2012 appears to have increased in the past few weeks.

Two new covered bonds from peripheral Eurozone issuers priced last week. The Italian Lender, Intesa San Paolo issued a €1.5 billion ($1.96 billion), 1.5-year unsecured bond at 295 basis points over mid swaps.

A House Financial Services subcommittee is slated to mark up a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) reform bill Tuesday that establishes a minimum annual mortgage insurance premium and extends the agency's indemnification requirements to all approved lenders.

Lloyds Bank has priced its U.K. RMBS deal from the bank's Arkle master trust.