Finance

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) received many comment letters strongly criticizing its May 26 preemption proposal. Unfortunately, the OCC largely ignored those criticisms and wrote final rules that blatantly violate the Dodd-Frank Act.

The heads of CMBS trading at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs departed this week according to a Bloomberg report.

U.S. senior fixed-income investors are taking a more conservative view of cross asset credit conditions on the back of recent macroeconomic concerns, according to a Fitch Ratings fixed-income forum survey of fixed income professionals, conducted in June.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is again helping itself financially by cutting distressed homeowners an unusual break.

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) has added new foreclosure guidelines to its two existing manuals, according to a MERS press release.

An index that gives insight into future home sales rose 2.4% in June after jumping 8.2% in May, a sign that not all consumers are spooked by the housing market.

A Texas investment firm has launched a new fund to invest in subordinated debt and take mezzanine stakes in what it calls “carefully selected” mortgage banking firms.

U.K. mortgage lender Paragon said preparations for its next securitization deal are well on the way.

Freddie Mac reported 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose three basis points to 4.55% with an average 0.8 point for the week ending July 28.

A new report by Amherst Securities Group (ASG) stressed the importance of investors helping the recovery of the still-fragile housing market.

Is the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision building an effective set of capital rules, one that will accomplish the goal of competitive parity?

Bingham McCutchen partner Edward Gainor, 56, has passed away from a heart attack.

Standard & Poor’s announced late yesterday that, in connection with the advanced notice of proposed criteria change, they will not currently assign ratings to transactions that are based on the U.S. conduit/fusion criteria.

The nation's robosigning debacle and the overhang of foreclosed properties on the market caused foreclosure activity to drop significantly during the first-half of the year, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac.

Lehman Brothers Holdings hopes to generate as much as $2 billion to repay creditors by securitizing a portfolio of commercial loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Wednesday filed suit against UBS Americas for misrepresenting the quality of private label, non prime MBS it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the housing and mortgage boom.

Wells Fargo has appointed Avid Modjtabai as senior executive vice president and head of its new Wells Fargo Consumer Lending (WFCL) group.

A report by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed some mispractices by broker-dealers in selling structured securities products. For the study, the SEC looked closely at eleven broker-dealers.

Trepp released a report on bank loan delinquencies for 2Q11 ahead of the final Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) figures.

Elizabeth Warren will step down Aug. 1 from her post as special advisor to the Treasury secretary at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Raj Date, a high-ranking official at the new bureau, will replace her.