Finance

Two Harbors Investment Corp. plans to offer its first issue of private-label RMBS late this year, joining a growing number of REITs that are prepping for a reduction - likely a gradual one over the years - in government-guaranteed mortgages.

From Brussels to D.C., the season of powwows is here, and ASR's editors have certainly been getting around.

The regulatory agencies charged with implementing the risk-retention provision of the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) recently announced that the comment period for their initial proposal will be extended to Aug. 1. As reported in the press, the delay resulted from widespread opposition to the definition of qualified residential mortgages (QRMs) as outlined in the March proposal. More fundamentally, it reflects the difficult tradeoffs involved in attempting to implement the risk retention provisions outlined in the DFA without limiting the access of large numbers of borrowers to mortgage credit and further damaging the housing market.

A common denominator in housing finance reform is the importance of the role that the private-label RMBS market must play.

Even as CMBS financing is slowly regaining form, with anticipated issuance of up to $40 billion this year, practices that contributed to the last downturn are slowly creeping back into the picture. This is a topic that was discussed at the CRE Finance Council's June convention in New York.

According to preliminary figures from the ASR Scorecards database, $31.03 billion in public ABS was issued in 1H11. This is a boost in comparison with the $26.41 billion recorded a year ago.

Regulation was a main focus at the recently concluded Global ABS 2011 conference held in Brussels in mid June. One of the issues was Solvency II, the proposed new European regulatory regime that, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service, is probably going to increase regulatory capital requirements for both European Union and European Economic Area insurers and reinsurers when it is implemented in 2013.

The regulatory overhaul of the housing market has taken center stage in most discussions regarding securitizations.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is ordering all national banks to conduct in-house reviews of their foreclosure management practices and prepare reports for OCC examiners.

Of the small pool of homeowners still refinancing their mortgages, a growing share are trading in lower monthly payments for the opportunity to pay down their debt faster.

This afternoon the New York Federal Reserve told dealers that it does not anticipate any further auctions of its Maiden Lane II (ML II) portfolio in the near term.

Tejas Securities Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westech Capital Corp. hired Samir Shah as managing director and co-sales manager of structured products.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker's (TBW) former chairman and CEO Lee Farkas was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for leading a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that brought down the top-ranked nonbank lender, and its chief warehouse backer Colonial Bank.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York has approved the reorganization plan of Innkeepers USA Trust, a REIT that filed for Chapter 11 protection in July 2010.

Grant Thornton’s public finance practice has been selected as the structuring and refunding verification agent for NYS Tobacco Settlement Financing Corp.’s (TSFC) $959.1 million ABS offering, which was priced by Barclays Capital on Tuesday.

Lawyers for NCUA told a federal judge here that the federal agency's June 20 suits against JP Morgan and RBS Securities should not exonerate officers and directors of WesCorp FCU in the 2009 failure of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union.

Mortgage rates were little changed in the week ending June 30, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.

If Bank of America Corp.'s proposal to settle its MBS claims for $8.5 billion is approved as is by a court, the deal would provide the template for other banks to clean up their own MBS messes.

Two years into the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), it appears the number of borrowers able to qualify for HAMP mods has leveled off while candidates for proprietary modifications surged in the first quarter.

New notices of default at the nation's private mortgage insurers far outpaced cures in May, ending a run of three months where the opposite was the case, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America (MICA).