Finance

Fitch Ratings said Friday that an outlook change to negative for "defeased" U.S. CMBS looks unlikely despite the use of government debt in defeasance and a recent revision of the sovereign outlook to negative.

Craig Sedmak, head of CMBS trading at the Royal Bank of Scotland, has left the bank to pursue interests outside of financial services, according to people familiar with the situation.

New data released from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) showed that the average weekly CMBS trading volume has been decreasing since June.

Ballard Spahr has created a mortgage banking group and hired a team of four attorneys who are at the forefront of evolving regulatory developments.

PNC Financial Services is taking a look at parts of MetLife Mortgage, according to industry advisors familiar with the situation.

Manager Activity: Autos Book Runner Amount (US$ Mil) Rank Mkt.

Navigating the non-agency RMBS market is not an easy task given that the market has seen little primary activity in 2011 and lots of volatility on housing stats.

Credit Suisse is prepping a $450 million term loan for retailer Lord & Taylor, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

A sell-off this week was boosted by a risk-on mentality based on more optimistic expectations regarding the European Union and stronger-than-expected economic data.

GMAC Mortgage on Friday said it will no longer purchase loans originated by mortgage correspondents or brokers in Massachusetts, citing the regulatory environment in the state.

Amherst Securities Group (ASG) yesterday released a detailed report that examines recent trends in modification activity in non-agencies.

DBRS has created the position of chief credit officer, Canadian structured finance and appointed Jerry Marriott to this role as of Dec. 1.

Confidence surveys suggest consumer borrowing might be stabilizing as the economy shows signs of recovery, but it remains unlikely to increase in the short run, according to a Moody's Analytics conference call on the outlook for consumer finance.

The Bank of Ireland announced the results of its tender offers targeting all outstanding tranches of the RMBS issued by Kildare Securities Ltd. and Brunel Residential Mortgage Securitization No.1 PLC.

As derivatives regulators hurry to implement key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, they face continuing questions over a firm that failed well after last year's passage of the law.

Toronto-Dominion Bank made an extra payout of $70 million to the previous owners of Chrysler Financial last quarter under an agreement to raise the price of the deal if the auto lender's assets perform better than expected.

Analysts anticipate little fallout from Standard & Poor's downgrade of Assured Guaranty.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is considering raising insurance premiums on loans above $625,500, according to HUD secretary Shaun Donovan.

For several months Fannie Mae has insisted that it's not in the servicing business, but a recent 10-Q filing by the government-owned GSE reveals that it agreed to buy $74 billion of MSRs from Bank of America in the third quarter. No purchase price was disclosed.

New York Mortgage Trust (NYMT) said it plans to use the net proceeds from its recently priced common stock public offering to acquire certain of the company's target assets, including multifamily CMBS.