Finance

Within minutes of Rep. Barney Frank's surprise announcement that he planned to retire next year, industry insiders and political analysts were focused on who would take his place as lead Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

Fannie Mae in early November cut 160 full-time workers such as a handful of vice presidents, including one with almost 30 years of service.

Fitch Ratings expects to revise the rating outlook to negative for certain U.S. structured finance ratings. This is a result of the change in the U.S. sovereign’s rating outlook to negative from stable.

Judge Jed Rakoff from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York today rejected Citigroup's settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the sale of a $1 billion CDO linked to subprime MBS.

Mortgage balances on consumer credit reports dropped by about $114 billion or 1.3% during the third quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest report on household debt and credit.

New home sales rose 1.3% in October after September sales were revised downward, according to new government figures released Monday.Meanwhile, the median sales price fell to its lowest level of the year.

The proposed changes to the Standard & Poor's counterparty criteria make them generally more lenient, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) analysts said in a report released today.

Real estate investment trust W.P. Carey & Co. continues to show appetite for self-storage facilities with another reported acquisition of units.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in early December will seek bids on a small pool of defaulted single-family loans and plans to conduct additional auctions in April and September of next year.

Government officials are likely to lessen large banks' liabilities over how they handled delinquent Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgages as part of a settlement with the largest mortgage servicers, according to people briefed on the negotiations.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will announce today that he will not seek re-election next year, capping a 32-year career in Congress, a spokesman said Monday.

Moody’s Investors Service launched a private loan ratings service for issuers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets, the rating agency said today.

Protestors with Occupy Wall Street continue to target properties tied to CMBS transactions, a Trepp report said.

Only three months after Mexican GSE Fovissste issued its first cross-border RMBS, the lender's deals are facing ratings trouble.

The folks at law firm Dechert put out their annual golden turkey awards for dubious achievements in the commercial real estate market, a few of which are perfectly applicable to other areas of structured finance.

Korean Air Lines (KAL) securitized $300 million of its passenger ticket sales predominately on its North America routes.

Application volume fell by 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Nov. 18, as purchase apps were up to their highest level since August, but refinancings were down to their lowest point since July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Only one county in the country–Fairfield, Conn.–will have a higher conforming loan limit in 2012. The ceiling in the other 3,200-plus counties will remain unchanged.

While bigger competitors have been cutting back in leveraged finance amid a decline in trading volume and slack underwriting, KeyBanc Capital Markets, the debt capital markets group of Cleveland-based KeyBank, continues to build out.